SATURDAY 01 FEBRUARY 2025

SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m0027d4y)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 00:30 The History Podcast (m001zdtd)
Shadow War: China and the West

Shadow War: 10. Collision

Could growing tensions lead to conflict? The rise of China is the defining challenge of our times – how far to co-operate, compete or confront? But has the West taken its eye off the ball? BBC Security Correspondent Gordon Corera looks at the points of friction in recent history, from espionage to free speech, the battle over technology and claims of political interference. This is a story about the competition to shape the world order. He speaks to politicians, spies, dissidents and those who’ve been caught up in the growing tension between China and the West.

Presenter: Gordon Corera
Series Producer: John Murphy
Producer: Olivia Lace-Evans
Sound Designer: Eloise Whitmore (Naked Productions)
Programme Coordinator: Katie Morrison
Series Editor: Penny Murphy


SAT 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0027d50)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0027d52)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SAT 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0027d54)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 05:30 News Briefing (m0027d56)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0027d58)
'I wrote a novel.' 'Neither did I.'

Reflection with Fiona Stewart, a writer who runs a Christian arts charity.


SAT 05:45 Why Do We Do That? (m0027d3x)
Series 2

2. Why do I get so upset when my team loses?

Ella Al-Shamahi is joined by Crystal Palace superfan Bobby and psychologist Martha Newson to find out why it's so devastating when our football team loses.

People who normally keep a stiff upper lip through life's ups and downs are distraught after a defeat. Is this a cultural response or something more primeval? Martha’s work shows that being beaten by another team deepens social bonds with fellow fans. From her results the fans of the least successful football clubs, including Crystal Palace, saw one another as kin and were willing to sacrifice themselves for each other.

BBC Studios Audio
Producer: Emily Bird
Additional production: Olivia Jani and Ben Hughes
Series Producer: Geraldine Fitzgerald
Executive Producer: Alexandra Feachem


SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m0027kzg)
The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at the papers.


SAT 06:07 Ramblings (m0027d7j)
Fife - Clatto Reservoir to Pitscottie

Clare is in the Kingdom of Fife today, hiking from Clatto Reservoir to Pitscottie. It’s a beautiful stretch of the Fife Pilgrim Way, a long-distance footpath that runs 65 miles from either Culross or North Queensferry (there’s a choice of starting places) and ends in St Andrews.

Joining her are three colleagues from the Fife Coast and Countryside Trust, who helped to develop the route, and an Elder from the church in the village of Ceres who would like to see 'champing' (that's camping in churches) established as a way of providing good accommodation for Pilgrims passing through Ceres on their way to St Andrews.

The Fife Pilgrim Way was officially opened in 2019 and connects west to east Fife via routes traditionally used by religious pilgrims. The route is divided into seven sections, ranging from 8 to 11 miles in length. You can find more information here: https://fifecoastandcountrysidetrust.co.uk/walks/fife-pilgrim-way/

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


SAT 06:30 Farming Today (m0027kzj)
10/02/24 - Land Use Framework, inheritance tax, avian flu

There are a lot of different things we want land to deliver - growing food, producing green energy, supporting wildlife and supplying space for new homes. The Government has released a new Land Use Framework to help decide what should go where.

A new analysis of the planned inheritance tax on farm businesses suggests over 75% of commercial farms in England and Scotland could be impacted. Farmers are being urged to seek advice.

And 5 years since the UK left the EU we assess the progress towards new farm payments systems in each part of the UK.

Presented by Charlotte Smith
Produced by Heather Simons


SAT 06:57 Weather (m0027kzl)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 07:00 Today (m0027kzn)
Including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


SAT 09:00 Saturday Live (m0027kzq)
Malorie Blackman, Cat Burford, Felicity Jones

Radio 4's Saturday morning show brings you extraordinary stories and remarkable people.


SAT 10:00 You're Dead to Me (m0027kzs)
Sojourner Truth: American abolitionist, suffragist, preacher

Greg Jenner is joined in nineteenth-century America by Dr Michell Chresfield and comedian Desiree Burch to learn all about abolitionist and suffragist Sojourner Truth. Born into slavery in a Dutch-speaking area of New England, Sojourner Truth fought to free herself and then others, becoming one of the best-known abolitionist activists in America. She even succeeded in freeing her son, making her the first Black American woman to win a court case. A devoutly religious woman, Truth felt that God had called her to travel the country, preaching and advocating for the end of slavery, women’s rights and universal suffrage. Along the way, she rubbed shoulders with abolitionists like Frederick Douglass, and politicians including Abraham Lincoln himself. This episode tells the story of her incredible life, beliefs and fight for justice, and even examines the true story behind her famous “ain’t I a woman?” speech.

If you’re a fan of inspirational activists, courtroom drama and questionable cults, you’ll love our episode on Sojourner Truth.

If you want more from Desiree and Michell, check out our episodes on Harriet Tubman and Josephine Baker. And for more abolitionist history, listen to our episode on Frederick Douglass.

You’re Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past.

Hosted by: Greg Jenner
Research by: Madeleine Bracey
Written by: Madeleine Bracey, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner
Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner
Audio Producer: Steve Hankey
Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands
Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse
Executive Editor: James Cook


SAT 10:30 What's Funny About... (m0027kzv)
Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister

Peter Fincham and Jon Plowman are joined by Jonathan Lynn to hear the story of how he and his co-writer Sir Anthony Jay created their sitcom masterpiece Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister.

Jonathan explains the challenges of writing a comedy about the on-the-face-of-it-not-entirely-hilarious subject of politicians and civil servants, and how he and Tony found such a rich vein of humour in the world of Jim Hacker and Sit Humphrey. He reveals the politicians who inspired the character of Jim, and the unlikely role that John Cleese’s corporate training video company played in the creation of the series.

Producer: Owen Braben
An Expectation Entertainment production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m0027kzx)
Caroline Wheeler from The Sunday Times assesses the latest developments at Westminster.

Following Rachel Reeves' speech setting out a series of major announcements on infrastructure projects, including backing plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport, Caroline speaks to Labour MP, Josh Simons and crossbench peer, Richard Harrington, who chairs the manufacturers organisation Made UK about how to achieve growth in the UK economy.

On the fifth anniversary of the UK’s official departure from the EU, the chair of the Foreign Affairs select committee Emily Thornberry and the former Conservative MP and leader of the House of Commons, Penny Mordaunt discuss the state of play in EU-UK relations.

The Conservative peer, Charlotte Owen is campaigning to stop the rise of deep fake online pornography and she discusses this with Caroline and "Jodie", a victim of deep fake porn.

And, the Speaker of the House of Commons Sir Lindsay Hoyle explains the importance of marking Holocaust Memorial Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in parliament.


SAT 11:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0027kzz)
Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents, journalists and writers from around the world


SAT 12:00 News Summary (m0027l01)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


SAT 12:04 Money Box (m0027l03)
Energy Back Billing and Lifetime ISAs

Thousands of people have made complaints to the Energy Ombudsman related to so-called back billing, which is when customers are sent new bills for energy use longer than 12 months prior. The practice was banned by the regulator Ofgem in 2018 but is still causing consumers problems. In the cases investigated by Money Box customers had to complain multiple times before their suppliers recognised they'd broken these rules and cancelled the bills. Ofgem says it's committed to reviewing billing practices while the trade industry body Energy UK says suppliers are continuously working to improve practices.

Is the Lifetime ISA fit for purpose in 2025? That's the question being asked as Parliament's Treasury Committee calls for evidence about whether it is still an appropriate financial product nine years after it was created. We'll discuss how it works successfully for some, but also the problems some people face.

The price people in England and Wales pay for water and sewage services will rise sharply from 1st April. Figures announced this week revealed that households in England and Wales will pay on average £123 a year more for their water. What can you do if you're worried about affording your bills?

And thousands of people in Northern Ireland are still without power after Storm Éowyn last week - what help is available?

Presenter: Paul Lewis
Reporters: Dan Whitworth and Eimear Devlin
Researcher: Jo Krasner
Editor: Jess Quayle

(First broadcast 12pm Saturday 1st February 2025)


SAT 12:30 The News Quiz (m0027d49)
Series 116

Gear shifting and Shoplifting

This week on The News Quiz, Andy Zaltzman is joined by Simon Evans, Athena Kugblenu, Susie McCabe and Hugo Rifkind l to unpack the week's new stories. In the week Keir Starmer set his sights on growth, the panel looked backing of a third runway at Heathrow, a shoplifting epidemic, and the decline of urban chess in the streets of Nottingham.

Written by Andy Zaltzman.

With additional material by: Cameron Loxdale, Sascha LO, Meryl O'Rourke and Peter Tellouche.
Producer: Rajiv Karia
Executive Producer: Pete Strauss
Production Coordinator: Jodie Charman
Sound Manager: David Thomas
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4
An Eco-Audio certified Production


SAT 12:57 Weather (m0027l05)
The latest weather forecast


SAT 13:00 News (m0027l07)
The latest national and international news and weather reports from BBC Radio 4


SAT 13:10 Any Questions? (m0027d4h)
Alex Burghart MP, Lord Falconer, Inaya Folarin Iman, Maya Goodfellow

Alex Forsyth presents political debate from London Museum Docklands with shadow cabinet minister Alex Burghart MP; Labour peer Lord Falconer; journalist and broadcaster Inaya Folarin Iman; and journalist and academic Maya Goodfellow.

Producer: Paul Martin
Lead broadcast engineer: Kevan Long


SAT 14:00 Any Answers? (m0027l09)
Call Any Answers? to have your say on the big issues in the news this week.


SAT 14:45 The Archers (m0027d4c)
Writer: Nick Warburton
Director: Jeremy Howe
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Tony Archer…. David Troughton
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Leonard Berry…. Paul Copley
Susan Carter…. Charlotte Martin
Vince Casey…. Tony Turner
Mick Fadmoor…. Martin Barrass
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Riddell
Joy Horville…. Jackie Lye
Jazzer McCreary…. Ryan Kelly
Lynda Snell…. Carole Boyd
Berwick Kaler as himself


SAT 15:00 Drama on 4 (m000nwqw)
Fusion Confidential

Dedicated young physicist, Jane, makes a discovery that she believes will enable nuclear fusion and pave the way for limitless clean energy. She confides in her opera-singer flatmate, Elvira. But Elvira realises that her brilliant, idealistic friend will need to be protected from all the vested interests out in the world.

Charlotte Ritchie and Cecilia Appiah star in a comedy about nuclear science - and opera - by Marcy Kahan.

CAST

Elvira.....Charlotte Ritchie
Jane.....Cecilia Appiah
Alex.....Adam Fitzgerald
Luba Lampedusa.....Tamara Ustinov
Alicia Mittelbaum.....Charlotte East
Dmitri 2.....Carl Prekopp

With additional music from Helen Neeves, Tom Raskin and Jessica Gillingwater from the BBC Singers and pianist Christopher Weston

Technical producer.....Keith Graham
Directed by Emma Harding

A BBC Audio production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 16:00 Woman's Hour (m0027l0c)
Weekend Woman’s Hour: Women’s refuges and disability, Mary Robinson, Polar Preet, Vicky Pattison’s deep fake doc, Rumer

In the last year, women with disabilities experienced domestic abuse at more than twice the rate of those without, according to the latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales. Yet data from Women’s Aid shows less than 1% of refuge vacancies in England are suitable for wheelchair users. Where does this leave women with disabilities impacted by domestic abuse? Anita Rani hears about one anonymous woman’s experience and was joined by Angie Airlie, CEO of Stay Safe East and Rebecca Goshawk, a director of Solace Women’s Aid.

Mrs Robinson is a feature-length documentary about Ireland’s first female president. Telling her own story of her childhood and career for the first time on screen, it was filmed over three years, and takes a deep-dive into Mary Robinson’s career as she discusses the significant controversies throughout her tenure and her own professional regrets; and examines how her gift for bridging differences was instrumental in bringing about seismic change in Ireland. Mary Robinson joined Clare McDonnell live.

Preet Chandi, better known as Polar Preet, broke world records in 2023 when she made the longest solo and unsupported journey across Antarctica, crossing 922 miles in 70 days. Now Preet is setting her sights on the North Pole, hoping to cross 500 miles of sea ice to reach it in under 70 days. She joined Anita to discuss why she’s making the change to the North Pole, how she plans to get there and how she plans on dealing with polar bears.

Reality star turned documentary filmmaker Vicky Pattison joined Clare to discuss her latest project, Vicky Pattison: My Deepfake Sex Tape. The documentary sees her exploring the proliferation of videos generated by AI whereby people’s faces are placed onto pornographic images and shared without their consent. Vicky talked about creating her own deepfake sex tape and looks at the impact the phenomenon is having on women and girls.

The singer/songwriter Rumer is a MOBO award winner and double Brit Award nominee. Her new album In Session is out today celebrating the 15th anniversary of her platinum debut album Seasons Of My Soul. The success that followed that album affected her mental health. She stepped away from the industry and relocated to the US. Now back in the UK she has returned to the record that has shaped so much of her life both professionally and personally. Rumer joined Anita Rani to talk about her life and music and to perform live in the studio.

Presenter: Anita Rani
Producer: Annette Wells
Editor: Rebecca Myatt


SAT 17:00 PM (m0027l0f)
Full coverage of the day's news.


SAT 17:30 Political Thinking with Nick Robinson (m0027l0h)
The Chris Philp One

The Shadow Home Secretary joins Nick in the Political Thinking studio to reflect on mistakes of the last government, humility in opposition and his anger at the new government.

Chris Philp also opens up about the impact of caring for his premature baby twins and what he has learned from success and failure in business.

Producer: Daniel Kraemer


SAT 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0027l0k)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SAT 17:57 Weather (m0027l0m)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SAT 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0027l0p)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 18:15 Loose Ends (m0027mgv)
Mhairi Black, Gordon Buchanan, EMEL, Cal MacAninch, Michael Pedersen, LÉDA

Natural history presenter and cameraman Gordon Buchanan’s new book In The Hide is a look back at some of his greatest adventures across the world, from Mumbai to Mongolia.

In 2015 Mhairi Black became the youngest MP elected to the House of Commons since the 1800s. After stepping down at the 2024 General Election, she turned her mind to her tell-all comedy show Politics Isn’t For Me which took last year’s Fringe by storm. She's now taking it on tour.

Cal MacAninch is well known for roles in Downton Abbey, Mr Selfridge, Vigil and Wild At Heart amongst much else. He plays Banquo in a production of Macbeth that has wowed audiences at the Donmar Warehouse and the West End and can be seen in cinemas in February.

Edinburgh’s Makar Michael Pedersen writes about friendship, grief and pretending to be a cat. The newest addition to his expanding body of works is his debut novel, Muckle Flugga.

Tunisian singer-songwriter EMEL has performed across the world, and rose to fame with her protest song Kelmti Horra which became an anthem for revolution. She performs from her latest album is MRA.

Irish-Scottish contemporary folk duo LÉDA share a new track ahead of their debut album launch later this year.


SAT 19:00 Profile (m0027l0r)
Alexander Lukashenko

Despite just winning a seventh consecutive presidential term, a look at Alexander Lukashenko’s early life reveals rather humbler origins.

Brought up by a single mother in a poor village in eastern Belarus, he first made his mark as the manager of a farm in the late 1980s.

After moving into politics at the end of that decade, he quickly established his reputation as a man with authoritarian instincts – and by 1994, he was elected president of Belarus for the first time.

Ever since, he has managed a balancing act between Russia, his closest economic and political partner, and overtures to the West. But, the country’s faced sanctions following its role in the invasion of Ukraine, while many Western governments have labelled this latest election as a sham.

Stephen Smith takes a closer look at the man often referred to as Europe's last dictator.

Production Team

Producers: Sally Abrahams, Charlotte McDonald and Nathan Gower
Editor: Ben Mundy
Sound: James Beard
Production Co-ordinator: Maria Ogundele and Jack Young

Guests:
Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, leader of the democratic opposition of Belarus
Olga Dryndova, Editor of Belarus-Analysen, University of Bremen
Katia Glod, Russia-West Policy Fellow at the European Leadership Network and Non-resident Fellow with Centre for European Policy Analysis, Washington DC
Pavel Latushka, former Minister of Culture, Belarus government, now Belarus opposition politician
Rosemary Thomas, former UK ambassador to Belarus

Credits:
Animal Farm by George Orwell, recording produced by Ciaran Bermingham
Narrated by Roger Ringrose


SAT 19:15 This Cultural Life (m0027d70)
Cynthia Erivo

Born and raised in south London, Cynthia Erivo made her name with musical theatre in London, starring in shows including The Umbrellas Of Cherbourg and Sister Act. In 2015 she became a Broadway star and won Tony, Emmy and Grammy awards for her role in The Color Purple, the musical adaptation of the Alice Walker novel which had transferred from London. Her screen acting credits include the title role in Harriet, about the 19th century abolitionist and campaigner Harriet Tubman, a film which earned her two Academy Award nominations, including for Best Actress. Oscar nominated again for her lead role in the musical film Wicked, she became the first black British woman to receive multiple Academy award nominations for acting. An acclaimed singer, she performed a solo show of songs made famous by female artists including Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Barbra Streisand at the 2022 BBC Proms.

Cynthia Erivo tells John Wilson about the influence of her Nigerian born mother, who raised her as a single mum. She remembers two mentors who enouraged her to perform at at young age; school music teacher Helen Rycroft, and Rae McKen who ran a local drama club. Cynthia recalls winning a place at the prestigious drama school RADA, and returning to become Vice President of the institution last year. She talks about the emotional pressures she underwent on playing Celie in The Color Purple, a story of abuse and survival, and how the themes of prejudice and acceptance explored in the musical Wicked, resonated so strongly with her. Cynthia also chooses the 2015 Alexander McQueen exhibition Savage Beauty at the V&A as a inspiring creative moment, and discusses her love of glamorous fashion.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


SAT 20:00 Archive on 4 (m0025ss6)
Prisoners, Saints and Persuaders: The World of ITC

Return of the Saint star Ian Ogilvy tells the story of Lew Grade's ITC company, which revolutionised British television in the 1960s and 70s. From espionage on the Riviera to surrealist thrillers filmed in Wales, and talking to actors, historians, producers and composers, this is a joyous celebration of ITC’s undoubtedly suave place in the history of pop culture.

Originally formed to produce upscale adventure, crime, espionage and sci-fi drama series for commercial British TV and syndication around the world – shot in luxurious 35mm film and moving to full colour years before BBC television - ITC produced an incredible catalogue of shows from the late 1950s to the early 1980s. They were stylishly produced, location driven, beautifully scored and often slightly surreal. Beginning in 1955 with the fantastically successful Adventures of Robin Hood (which employed Left-leaning American writers blacklisted by the McCarthy trials in the States), by the late 1950s ITC moved to modern Cold War espionage and crime drama, producing Danger Man two years before the James Bond film franchise was launched. Ian Fleming himself was an early consultant for the series.

Other action titles followed featuring gentleman adventurers and lone wolf agents from The Saint (Roger Moore) and The Baron (Steve Forrest) to Man in a Suitcase, Randal and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Champions, The Persuaders (Tony Curtis, Roger Moore) and finally Ian Ogilvy’s Return of the Saint, produced in 1978 and filmed across Italy and the South of France. A jewel in the ITC crown was Patrick McGoohan’s The Prisoner (1967) - a strange, psychedelic and psychologically intense series still hotly debated by fans.

Lew Grade was also the champion of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Supermarionation series of the 1960s – Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray and others – a huge success for ITC and beloved by generations of children. The Muppets followed a decade later, as Lew gave Jim Henson his first break after Sesame Street. As ITC shifted focus towards film and away from television, the company took a slightly stranger turn in the early 1970s with live action sci-fi – including UFO and Space 1999 - before commissioning the genuinely eerie titles of the late 70s which marked the end of ITC’s great television era, distributing Sapphire and Steel (David McCallum and Joanna Lumley) and finally a partnership with Hammer Studios, the genuinely nasty Hammer House of Horror which substituted the Carpathian mountains for present day England.

The story of ITC is crucial to the story of television in Britain and the arrival of commercial TV as a challenge to the BBC's monopoly. While the BBC’s Reithian mission focused on British audiences, Lew Grade understood the new medium as a truly international one, and through sales to foreign markets ITC could command huge budgets to be reinvested in high-production values, art direction and rich, cinematic scoring.

With contributions from Lew’s nephew Lord Michael Grade, ITC actors Annette Andre and Jane Merrow, ITC composer John Cameron, conductor Gavin Sutherland, daughter of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson Dee Anderson, cultural historian Matthew Sweet, television writer and former Dr Who show-runner Steven Moffat, founder of Trunk Records and curator Jonny Trunk, BFI television historian Dick Fiddy and Jaz Wiseman, author of ITC Entertained the World.

Presented by Ian Ogilvy

Produced by Simon Hollis

A Brook Lapping production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 21:00 The Poetry Detective (m0024vv5)
Poet, Philosopher and Failure

Our Poetry Detective Vanessa Kisuule investigates two headstones with mysterious epitaphs and finds out about people drawing on poetry to help them choose the words to mark their loved one's final resting place.

Listener Michelle Thomas asks Vanessa if she can find anything out about a grave she encountered years ago, in the cemetery of St Peter's, Heysham - a small village overlooking Morecambe Bay. The epitaph on the headstone reads "Poet, Philosopher & Failure". Who is buried there, why were they deemed a 'failure', and can we find any of their poetry?

David Bingham is the author of 'The London Dead', a blog he has been adding to for more than 10 years with stories of London's cemeteries and graveyards. He tells us about a striking and unusual grave he's encountered, bearing text from three separate poems. Who wrote the poems? And why were they chosen? Vanessa investigates, with the help of the writer Damian Le Bas.

And we visit the Oxfordshire workshop of stone carver Fergus Wessel where the walls are covered in lines of poetry cut into stone. He tells us about supporting people through the process of choosing an epitaph for a headstone, and how poetry might be one source of inspiration as we search for the right words.

Produced by Mair Bosworth for BBC Audio


SAT 21:30 Illuminated (m0022c1n)
Sybil Phoenix, a Civil Life

The years after Sybil Phoenix's arrival in England from British Guiana in 1956 follow a not unfamiliar pattern - trying to find a home and secure a livelihood, learning how to manage the endemic racism in Britain and, above all things, building a community.

Fostering countless children, setting up the famous Moonshot youth club in south-east London and dealing with the reaction from right-wing extremists bound together her personal and public lives. In 1972 she accepted - not without controversy - an MBE, the first black woman to do so. With her new status she set up a hostel for young women, the Marsha Phoenix Memorial Trust.

Now aged 97, Sybil's story is shared by her son Woodrow and daughter Loraine, the activist Eric Huntley, who's known her for over 80 years, and through previously not heard recordings that touch on her troubled early life, the death of her daughter Marsha, the New Cross Fire and much else.

Produced by Cherise Hamilton-Stephenson and Alan Hall
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:00 News (m0027l0t)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SAT 22:15 The Food Programme (m0027d3c)
Low and No

What's behind the rise and rise of low alcohol and alcohol free drinks? The sector grew by a quarter last year alone, fuelled by our changing relationship with alcohol. More than fifteen million people are thought to have considered taking part in Dry January this year and younger drinkers in particular are turning away from alcohol and embracing alcohol-free versions of beer, wine and spirits or entirely new drinks coming onto the market.

In this programme Jaega Wise considers the changes in the drinks industry. She eavesdrops on an alcohol-free workshop with the mindful drinking movement Club Soda and speaks to its founder Laura Willoughby. She hears from the alcohol-free beer brand Lucky Saint and the market research company Kam on our changing drinking patterns, including the trend for zebra-striping - alternating between alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks.

Then Jaega visits Bristol to find out how breweries are using different techniques to make alcohol-free beer that is far superior to the much-derided watery and flavourless versions of old. The Bristol Beer Factory tells her that their alcohol-free brand now makes up a fifth of sales. At Wiper & True nearby, they reckon within five years around half of all their beers will be alcohol-free.

The movement towards "low and no" drinks means there is now a World Alcohol Free Awards as their co-founder Chrissie Parkinson explains and Dash Lilley from the Three Spirit brand talks about how some drinks makers are looking to very different ingredients from the plant world to create original flavours.

Presented by Jaega Wise
Produced in Bristol for BBC Audio by Robin Markwell


SAT 23:00 What? Seriously?? (m0027l0w)
5. Duels, Feuds and Stolen Solos

In this episode, Dara and Isy are joined by the broadcaster Stuart Maconie to learn about inventive instruments - with some diverting conversations about jazz, quiz shows, egos, and intellectual property.

What? Seriously?? is a new podcast which combines comedy with quirky history, hosted by Dara and Isy who unravel an extraordinary real-life tale each week with the help of a celebrity guest.

The stories are definitely true, but also kind of unbelievable at the same time - the sort of stories that make you go ‘What? Seriously??’ when you hear them, but you resolve to tell them in the pub the first chance you get.

Across the series, Dara and Isy will be joined by I’m A Celeb winner Georgia Toffolo, the Aussie comedian Rhys Nicholson, the broadcaster Stuart Maconie, Master Chef star Louisa Ellis, Miles from The Traitors, the comedian Richard Herring, the astronaut Helen Sharman, and Slow Horses star Chris Chung.

‘What? Seriously??’ with Dara Ó Briain and Isy Suttie and special guest Rhys Nicholson
Format co-developed by Dan Page. Story compiled by Gareth Edwards and Dan Page.
Producer: Laura Grimshaw
Executive Producer: Jon Holmes
An unusual production for BBC Radio 4


SAT 23:30 Counterpoint (m0027ch4)
Series 38

Heat 5, 2025

(5/13)
Another three contenders face Paul Gambaccini's questions on the full spectrum of music, from the classical repertoire to musical theatre, jazz, folk, world music and sixty years of the pop charts.

Taking part today are:
Rosanne Jardine from Dorset
Clive Manning from London
Claire Sanderson from Cardiff.

Counterpoint is a BBC Studios Audio production.
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria

SUNDAY 02 FEBRUARY 2025

SUN 00:00 Midnight News (m0027l0y)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


SUN 00:15 Take Four Books (m0027ch2)
Michelle de Kretser

This week Take Four Books, presented by James Crawford, talks to the award-winning Australian writer Michelle de Kretser about her new novel - Theory & Practice - and its three key influences. Michelle's choices were: the diary of Virginia Woolf from 1932; Ali Smith’s The Accidental from 2005; and Shirley Hazzard’s The Transit of Venus, from 1980.

Producer: Dom Howell
Editor: Annie McGuire
This was an BBC Audio Scotland production


SUN 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0027l10)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0027l12)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


SUN 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0027l14)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 05:30 News Briefing (m0027l16)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 05:43 Bells on Sunday (m0027l18)
The Minster Church of St John the Baptist, Halifax in West Yorkshire

Bells on Sunday comes from the Minster Church of St John the Baptist, Halifax in West Yorkshire. The present church was built in the fifteenth century with work on the fine tower taking over thirty years to complete. The current bells were installed in 1951 and are one of the last rings of bells to be cast by the Gillett and Johnston foundry of Croydon. They are a diatonic ring of twelve with a tenor bell weighing twenty eight hundredweight tuned to the key of D. We hear them ringing Grandsire Cinques.


SUN 05:45 In Touch (m0027cn0)
Regulator rejects macular disease treatment; Optomap

The treatment of Geographic Atrophy (GA) or late stage dry age-related macular degeneration as it's also known, is proving to be a pretty tough nut to crack. Hopes had been high that a treatment available in the USA would also be approved for use here in the UK. However, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has rejected the application. Ed Holloway, Chief Executive of the Macular Society and Bill Best who has lived with GA for many years join us to discuss the MHRA decision.

Optomap is an imaging system which produces significantly more detailed information about the retina than had been available before. This can lead to earlier diagnosis of many eye conditions and accordingly a better chance of preventing sight loss. Dr Peter Hampson, Policy and Clinical Director of the Association of Optometrists and John Hopcroft, Clinical Services Manager at Boots join us to discuss the system and how public access to it is being improved by bringing it to the high street.
Presenter: Peter White
Producer: Fern Lulham
Production Coordinator: David Baguley

Website image description: Peter White sits smiling in the centre of the image, wearing a dark green jumper. Above Peter's head is the BBC logo (three individual white squares house each of the three letters). Bottom centre and overlaying the image are the words "In Touch"; and the Radio 4 logo (the word Radio in a bold white font, with the number 4 inside a white circle). The background is a bright mid-blue with two rectangles angled diagonally to
the right. Both are behind Peter, one of a darker blue and the other is a lighter blue.’


SUN 06:00 News Summary (m0027l1c)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 06:05 Thinking Allowed (m0027cm2)
Crime Stories

Laurie Taylor explores the fascination for true crime stories. He's joined by Jennifer Fleetwood, Senior Lecturer in Criminology at City, University of London, whose latest work considers the remarkable rise in the number of people who speak publicly about their experience of crime. Personal accounts used to be confined to the police station and the courtroom, but today bookshops heave with autobiographies by prisoners, criminals, police and barristers while streaming platforms host hours of interviews so how easy is it for the 'truth' to come out?

Louise Wattis, Assistant Professor in the Department: Social Sciences ·at Northumbria University, Newcastle looks at the skyrocketing interest in true crime as a form of popular entertainment. What do we know about the appeal of 'Hardman' biographies of violent criminals, a hugely popular subgenre, particularly for male readers?

Producer: Jayne Egerton


SUN 06:35 On Your Farm (m0027l1f)
A Natural Capital Deal

The 57,000 acre Corrour Estate in the Scottish Highlands is being managed to restore habitats, increase biodiversity and sequester carbon. That means widescale restoration of degraded peat bogs, planting thousands of trees and culling of thousands of deer.

The work is being paid for, in part, by a Natural Capital Deal done with the University of St Andrews. It's 100 year partnership, with the estate agreeing to sequester carbon to offset the emissions from the international students attending the University.

In this programme, Caz Graham visits the estate to see the work that's being done, and explores the implications for wildlife, communities and the future of Scottish upland management.

Presented by Caz Graham
Produced by Heather Simons


SUN 06:57 Weather (m0027l1h)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 07:00 News and Papers (m0027l1k)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the papers.


SUN 07:10 Sunday (m0027l1m)
A look at the ethical and religious issues of the week


SUN 07:54 Radio 4 Appeal (m0027jy2)
The Forward Trust

Beneficiary Melissa Rice makes the Radio 4 Appeal on behalf of The Forward Trust. The charity runs two rehabilitation centres in England and offered Melissa a bursary for a residential stay to help her tackle her alcoholism.

To Give:
- Freephone 0800 404 8144
- Freepost BBC Radio 4 Appeal. (That’s the whole address. Please do not write anything else on the front of the envelope). Mark the back of the envelope ‘The Forward Trust’.
- Cheques should be made payable to ‘The Forward Trust’.
- You can donate online at bbc.co.uk/appeal/radio4

Registered Charity Number: 1001701. If you’d like to find out more about the charity’s work visit *https://www.forwardtrust.org.uk
*The BBC is not responsible for content on external websites


SUN 07:57 Weather (m0027l1p)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 08:00 News and Papers (m0027l1r)
The latest news headlines. Including a look at the Sunday papers


SUN 08:10 Sunday Worship (m0027l1t)
Candlemas

Mass on the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord recorded in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool. Lumen ad revelationem gentium (plainchant), Gloria from Little Organ Mass (Haydn), Malachi 3:1-4, Psalm 24 (responsorial), Luke 2:22-40, Christ be our Light (Bernadette Farrell), Nunc Dimittis (in G - Stanford), Sanctus and Agnus Dei from Missa Brevis (Haydn), Zion see your Saviour come (Mendelssohn), Grand Choeur in Bb (Dubois), President: Monsignor Anthony O'Brien; Homily: Fr Derek Lloyd; Metropolitan Cathedral Youth Choir directed by Joe Watson and Josie Baker; Organist: Richard Lea; Director of Music: Dr Christopher McElroy; Producer: Philip Billson


SUN 08:48 A Point of View (m0027d4k)
The Overwhelm

The 'overwhelm' - noun, not verb - has been around 'since at least 1596', AL Kennedy discovers.

She looks at the reasons why the word is making a comeback - and she has some advice for those who also feel lost in 'the overwhelm.'

Producer: Adele Armstrong
Sound: Peter Bosher
Production coordinator: Gemma Ashman
Editor: Richard Fenton-Smith


SUN 08:58 Tweet of the Day (m0027l1w)
Michael Palin on the Dunnock

A new series of Tweet of the Day for Sunday morning revealing personal and fascinating stories from some fresh voices who have been inspired by birds, their calls and encounters.

If ever a bird typified the phrase 'little brown job' then the dunnock must be a strong contender. This unremarkable bird leads, for the most part, a quiet solitary life deep within a shrubbery or hedge, giving it an old and incorrect name of hedge sparrow. But in the breeding season the dunnock can develop complex relationships, males sharing territories, females sharing males. This louche lifestyle also attracts the cuckoo. Dunnock are one of the preferred species for the female cuckoo to lay her egg, which once hatched the chick will quickly dwarf the parent dunnock.

Producer : Andrew Dawes of BBC Audio in Bristol
Studio Engineer : Ilse Lademann


SUN 09:00 Broadcasting House (m0027l1y)
The Sunday morning news magazine programme. Presented by Paddy O'Connell


SUN 10:00 Desert Island Discs (m0027l20)
Nemone Lethbridge, lawyer and writer

Nemone Lethbridge, barrister, shares the eight tracks, book and luxury item she would take with her if cast away to a desert island. With Lauren Laverne.


SUN 11:00 The Archers Omnibus (m0027l22)
Writer: Nick Warburton
Director: Jeremy Howe
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Tony Archer…. David Troughton
Lilian Bellamy…. Sunny Ormonde
Leonard Berry…. Paul Copley
Susan Carter…. Charlotte Martin
Vince Casey…. Tony Turner
Mick Fadmoor…. Martin Barrass
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Riddell
Joy Horville…. Jackie Lye
Jazzer McCreary…. Ryan Kelly
Lynda Snell…. Carole Boyd
Berwick Kaler as himself


SUN 12:15 Profile (m0027l0r)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Saturday]


SUN 12:30 Just a Minute (m0027bp6)
Series 94

2. Where they make cheese and milk out of butterflies

Sue Perkins challenges Tony Hawks, Ian Smith, Zoe Lyons and Charlotte Ritchie to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation. Subjects include Getting Butterflies, Bottling it, and a Desire for Revenge.

Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
An EcoAudio certified production.

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4.


SUN 12:57 Weather (m0027l24)
The latest weather forecast


SUN 13:00 The World This Weekend (m0027l26)
Radio 4's look at the week's big stories from both home and around the world.


SUN 13:30 Germany: Rebellion on the Rhine (m0027l28)
Germans head to the ballot box on February 23rd to decide the new national government. In Ludwigshafen, a Rhineland city that is emblematic of the sudden economic shocks battering the nation's industrial heartlands, ordinary Germans are questioning their loyalty to mainstream parties. Jeremy Cliffe meets local leaders and voters to see whether the populists who have been surging in the east can expect similar results here on the back of profound economic discontent.

Producer: Jeanny Gering
Presenter: Jeremy Cliffe
Executive Producer: Robert Nicholson

A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0027d3z)
East and West Hanney

Is gardening a solitary or a social activity? What could I grow up a garage wall? What do the panel expect to see in open gardens?

Kathy and a team of experts visit The Hanneys to solve gardeners' problems. Joining Kathy to answer the questions are fanatical plantswoman Christine Walkden, dedicated botanist Dr Chris Thorogood, and passionate plant expert Matthew Biggs.

Later in the programme, Matthew Pottage and GQT producer Dominic Tyerman visit the Sydney Botanic Gardens in Australia to understand the wide appeal of living wall gardens, as well as provide tips for making your own.

Producer: Dominic Tyerman
Assistant Producer: Rahnee Prescod
Executive Producer: Carly Maile

A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 14:45 Someone Else's Bed by MJ Hyland (b07w6ft7)
Mick seeks escape from his lack of a job and marital problems by doing something he’s never done before, “good or bad, big or small”, that no-one else need ever know about.

M J Hyland is an ex-lawyer, a lecturer at the University of Manchester and the author of three novels - How the Light Gets In, Carry Me Down (shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize) and This is How. She has twice been shortlisted for the National Short Story Award.

Writer: M J Hyland
Reader: Rob Jarvis
Producer: Jeremy Osborne

A Sweet Talk production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 15:00 Drama on 4 (m0027l2b)
The History of Mr Polly

Making an End to Things

Alfred Polly is an ordinary middle-aged man who is tired of his wife’s nagging and his dreary job as a gentleman’s outfitter in a small town. Faced with the threat of bankruptcy, he decides that the only way to escape his frustrating existence is to burn his shop to the ground and kill himself. Unexpected events, however, conspire at the last moment to lead the bewildered Mr Polly to a bright new future – after he saves a life, fakes his death and escapes to a world of heroism, hope and ultimate happiness.

A comic take on mid-life crisis, The History of Mr Polly (published in 1910) is generally considered H G Wells' funniest novel. But it’s not without serious purpose. Beneath the surface is an implicit criticism of a society that forces people to suppress their imaginations and lead lives of drab conformity.

In the final episode, Mr Polly attempts to put his reckless plan of arson and self-destruction into practice.

Episode 2: Making an End to Things

Narrator ..... Stephen Mangan
Alfred Polly ..... Paul Ready
Miriam ..... Clare Corbett
Annie ..... Emma Kilbey
Rumbold ..... Richard Attlee
Captain Boomer ..... Trevor Littledale
Gambell ..... Julian Parkin
Rusper ..... Nigel Anthony
Mrs Rumbold ..... Jean Trend
Flo ..... Karen Ascoe
Uncle Jim ..... Ben Crowe
Miss Polly ..... Betsy Horsfall
Horace ..... James Joyce
Gwendoline ..... Ela Chapman

Written by HG Wells
Dramatised by Stephen Sheridan
Producer / Director: David Blount

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 16:00 Bookclub (m0027l2d)
Sara Collins

This month, BBC Bookclub, presented by James Naughtie, speaks to the writer Sara Collins, as she takes questions from a live audience about her award-winning debut novel, The Confessions of Frannie Langton. Sara was the Costa Book Awards First Novel Winner in 2019 and also she has also adapted the book for television.

Producer: Dom Howell
Editor: Gillian Wheelan
This was a BBC Audio Scotland production.


SUN 16:30 Counterpoint (m0027l2g)
Series 38

Heat 6, 2025

(6/13)
Another three contenders join Paul Gambaccini at the Radio Theatre in London, to answer questions on the widest possible spectrum of music. Paul will be testing their knowledge of the classical repertoire as well as musical theatre, jazz, folk, world music and sixty years of the pop charts - with plenty of musical extracts to identify.

Appearing in today's heat are:
Eleanor Ayres from Cambridge
Nancy Braithwaite from East London
Mike Sarson-Rowe from Wiltshire.

As well as fielding general questions on music, the competitors will have to choose a special subject on which to answer solo questions in the spotlight - with no prior warning of the topics on offer. How wise will their spur-of-the-moment choices turn out to be?

Counterpoint is a BBC Studios Audio production.
Assistant Producer: Stephen Garner
Producer: Paul Bajoria


SUN 17:00 Witness History (w3ct5yh3)
The Situation Room photograph

Pete Souza was Chief Official White House Photographer during Barack Obama's presidency. His photo from when Bin Laden was killed by US soldiers in 2011 has become one of his most famous.

He tells Uma Doraiswamy what that day was like leading up to the moment when he took the photo.

Eye-witness accounts brought to life by archive. Witness History is for those fascinated by the past. We take you to the events that have shaped our world through the eyes of the people who were there. For nine minutes every day, we take you back in time and all over the world, to examine wars, coups, scientific discoveries, cultural moments and much more.

Recent episodes explore everything from football in Brazil, the history of the ‘Indian Titanic’ and the invention of air fryers, to Public Enemy’s Fight The Power, subway art and the political crisis in Georgia. We look at the lives of some of the most famous leaders, artists, scientists and personalities in history, including: visionary architect Antoni Gaudi and the design of the Sagrada Familia; Michael Jordan and his bespoke Nike trainers; Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal; and Görel Hanser, manager of legendary Swedish pop band Abba on the influence they’ve had on the music industry. You can learn all about fascinating and surprising stories, such as the time an Iraqi journalist hurled his shoes at the President of the United States in protest of America’s occupation of Iraq; the creation of the Hollywood commercial that changed advertising forever; and the ascent of the first Aboriginal MP.

(Photo: President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden. Credit: Getty Images / Pete Souza, White House)


SUN 17:10 The Verb (m0027l2j)
Reeta Chakrabarti, Fred D'Aguiar, Ella Frears, Edward Wilson-Lee

Flames and poetry - what poetry tell us about the Los Angeles fires, the pleasure the poet John Keats took in reading - a poem-letter to an imaginary estate agent, and magical language. To explore all this McMillan is joined by poetry writers and poetry lovers.

Ian's guests:
BBC newsreader and journalist Reeta Chakrabarti is a trustee of the Keats-Shelley Memorial Association. She shares her passion for John Keats' poem 'On First Looking into Chapman's Homer' - with its 'realms of gold' and a planet that 'swims'.

Fred D'Aguiar is a British-Guyanese poet who lives and teaches in Los Angeles - he shares a powerful new commission which bears witness to the Los Angeles fires, and asks how we might depict and talk about fire in an age of rising temperatures.

What does it mean to be a tenant, or an artist in residence in someone else's house - at a time when it is harder to buy houses than in the past?
The poet Ella Frears has written a book-length poem exploring rented and borrowed spaces - addressed to an imaginary estate agent - full of tender and frank observations about modern life.

Edward Wilson-Lee's new book 'The Grammar of Angels - A Search for the Magical Powers of Language' explores the attraction (and the rejection) of language that has a powerful effect, or casts a spell on us - including the speech of angels and inscriptions on amulets. The book invites us to consider when sound is more powerful than sense, and why that might have concerned our ancestors.


SUN 17:54 Shipping Forecast (m0027l2l)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


SUN 17:57 Weather (m0027l2n)
The latest weather reports and forecast


SUN 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0027l2q)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


SUN 18:15 Pick of the Week (m0027l2s)
Clive Anderson

A selection of highlights from the past week on BBC radio


SUN 19:00 The Archers (m0027l2v)
A bombshell is dropped on Harrison, and Tom has cricket on his mind.


SUN 19:15 Illuminated (m0027l2x)
Scattering

Over 80% of people in Britain choose to be cremated rather than buried after death and the scattering of a loved one's ashes is a ritual that's increasingly familiar to many of us.

In a lyrical and bittersweet meditation on grief and memory, writer and producer Tim Dee reflects on a West Country road trip to scatter his father’s mortal remains in places of significance to both of them. Each stop has a unique story and forms part of a revealing and poignant commemoration.

In the car, the cardboard tube of John Dee's cremated remains travels in the passenger seat, safely buckled up. Then at each place, some of the contents are decanted into an recycle Indian Takeaway container for the act itself.

They are cast into the wind from the top of Dunkery Beacon on Exmoor, from a bridge over the River Horner nearby. A pot of ashes is put into a paper boat as an attempt to sail John out to sea from Madbrain Sands in Minehead.

Then to Bristol. To the family home on Sion Hill to remember domestic rancour between father and mother. And below the bridge over the Avon Gorge, a place of profound early trauma for son Tim.

All this is set to a soundtrack of remembrance on the car stereo with songs from The Beach Boys, Julie Andrews, Taylor Swift and the recorded memories of Tim's father from a conversation they had 20 years before his death.

Presenter: Tim Dee
Producer: Alastair Laurence
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


SUN 19:45 Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley (m001vmbm)
Drink Green Tea

Michael takes a break to brew up a cup of green tea, warming up to its distinctive taste and its health benefits. Dr Edward Okello, from the Human Nutrition Research Centre at the University of Newcastle, reveals how green tea can benefit our brain power and health. Green tea contains the polyphenol EGCG (Epigallocatechin Gallate) and Professor Okello explains how this polyphenol inhibits a destructive enzyme which harms our brain cells. Michael also learns that a nice hot cup of green tea also induces calming brain waves, improves heart health and could even help delay dementia. Meanwhile, volunteer Jacqui enjoys the benefits of going green.

Series Producer: Nija Dalal-Small
Science Producer: Catherine Wyler
Researcher: Sophie Richardson
Researcher: Will Hornbrook
Production Manager: Maria Simons
Editor: Zoe Heron
A BBC Studios production for BBC Sounds / BBC Radio 4.


SUN 20:00 Word of Mouth (m0027d7l)
Politeness with Louise Mullany

Professor Louise Mullany talks to Michael Rosen about politeness, and how it governs our lives, from the behaviour of football managers to the different ways children can embarrass us. Why, in this country at least, is it so mortifying to mistakenly assume someone is pregnant, when in other cultures it's simply thoughtful to book two seats on a plane for a larger person. Starring Michael Rosen as Spanish football manager Unai Emery, the politest man in football.

Produced for BBC Audio Bristol by Sally Heaven
Subscribe to the Word of Mouth podcast and never miss an episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b006qtnz


SUN 20:30 Last Word (m0027d43)
Rev Don Cupitt, Phyllis Dalton, Cecile Richards, Michael Longley

Matthew Bannister on

The Reverend Don Cupitt, the controversial theologian whose TV series “The Sea of Faith” asked in what form - if any - is Christian faith possible for us today?

Phyllis Dalton, the Oscar winning costume designer who worked on classic films, including “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Doctor Zhivago” and “Oliver!”.

Cecile Richards, the American activist who campaigned for women’s right to have abortions.

Michael Longley, the Northern Irish poet whose subjects included love, war and the natural world.

Interviewee: Professor Catherine Pickstock
Interviewee: Alexander Ballinger
Interviewee: Laura Kusisto
Interviewee: Paul Muldoon

Producer: Gareth Nelson-Davies

Archive used:

Sea of Faith, BBC TWO, 12/09/1984; Thinking Aloud: Religion, BBC TWO, 22/12/1985; Don Cupitt on the non-realist position on God, Podcast 20:, The Middle Way Society, YouTube 12/04/2014; Doctor Zhivago film promo, Warner Bros, 1965; Oliver! Film promo, (1968), Sony Pictures Entertainment, YouTube 07/10/2021; Phyllis Dalton, The British Entertainment History Project, www.historyproject.org.uk, 11/02/2000; Championing Choice, The Thread Documentary Series, Life Stories. 17/06/2022; Hundreds protest at Planned Parenthood, WPRI, YouTube 22/08/2015; Cecile Richards, Life Stories, YouTube uploaded 12/10/2022; Protesters outside Louisville's Planned Parenthood, Courier Journal, 22/08/2015; Letters to a Young Poet: Michael Longley, BBC Radio 3, 15/01/2014; Poet Michael Longley reads "Wounds" in UCD Library, University College Dublin Library, UCD YouTube Channel 16/08/2016; Michael Longley, "Ceasefire", The Arts Show, BBC TWO, 12/03/2014; Michael Longley interview, Where Poems Come From, BBC, 11/02/2024; Michael Longley, The Culture Cafe, BBC Radio 4, 18/02/2024


SUN 21:00 Money Box (m0027l03)
[Repeat of broadcast at 12:04 on Saturday]


SUN 21:25 Radio 4 Appeal (m0027jy2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 today]


SUN 21:30 From Our Own Correspondent (m0027kzz)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:30 on Saturday]


SUN 22:00 Westminster Hour (m0027l2z)
Radio 4's Sunday night political discussion programme.


SUN 23:00 In Our Time (m0027d6t)
Pope Joan

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss a story that circulated widely in the middle ages about a highly learned woman who lived in the ninth century, dressed as a man, travelled to Rome, and was elected Pope.

Her papacy came to a dramatic end when it was revealed that she was a woman, a discovery that is said to have occurred when she gave birth in the street. The story became a popular cautionary tale directed at women who attempted to transgress traditional roles, and it famously blurred the boundary between fact and fiction. The story lives on as the subject of recent novels, plays and films.

With:

Katherine Lewis, Honorary Professor of Medieval History at the University of Lincoln and Research
Associate at the University of York

Laura Kalas, Senior Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Swansea University

And

Anthony Bale, Professor of Medieval & Renaissance English at the University of
Cambridge and Fellow of Girton College.

Producer: Eliane Glaser

Reading list:

Alain Boureau (trans. Lydia G. Cochrane), The Myth of Pope Joan (University of Chicago Press, 2001)

Stephen Harris and Bryon L. Grisby (eds.), Misconceptions about the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2008), especially 'The Medieval Popess' by Vincent DiMarco

Valerie R. Hotchkiss, Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe (Routledge, 1996)

Jacques Le Goff, Heroes and Marvels of the Middle Ages (Reaktion, 2020), especially the chapter ‘Pope Joan’

Marina Montesano, Cross-dressing in the Middle Ages (Routledge, 2024)

Joan Morris, Pope John VIII - An English Woman: Alias Pope Joan (Vrai, 1985)

Thomas F. X. Noble, ‘Why Pope Joan?’ (Catholic Historical Review, vol. 99, no.2, 2013)

Craig M. Rustici, The Afterlife of Pope Joan: Deploying the Popess Legend in Early Modern England (University of Michigan Press, 2006)

In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio production


SUN 23:45 Short Works (m0027d41)
Incandescent by Clare Duffy

An original short story specially commissioned by BBC Radio 4 written and read by Clare Duffy.

Clare Duffy is an Irish writer and performer across stage and screen. She is currently living and writing in Belfast and dreaming about Paris. She gained an MA in Creative Writing from the Seamus Heaney Centre and Queens University Belfast and is working on a screen project, a short story collection, and teaching screenwriting at Queens University Belfast.

Writer: Clare Duffy
Reader: Clare Duffy
Producer: Michael Shannon

A BBC Audio Northern Ireland Production for BBC Radio 4.

MONDAY 03 FEBRUARY 2025

MON 00:00 Midnight News (m0027l31)
The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4.


MON 00:15 Crossing Continents (m0027cn3)
Reel Revolution? The dramatic rise of Saudiwood

Saudi Arabia is rolling out the red carpet to filmmakers and foreign companies as it sets out to establish itself as a major player in the entertainment industry. After lifting a 35-year ban on cinemas in 2018, the Kingdom is now luring Hollywood with cash incentives to shoot in the desert, and playing host to a glitzy international film festival. The move is all part of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's ‘Vision 2030’ - a grand blueprint to rewrite the Kingdom's script, diversify its economy away from oil, and expand its cultural influence though films, gaming and sport, all at the same time seeking to keep an overwhelming young population happy. It is a dramatic transformation with writers, directors and actors now prepared to test boundaries and break taboos on screen. But as Emily Wither finds out Saudi Arabia is still a country where not every story can be told.

Presenter: Emily Wither
Producers Emily Wither and Ben Carter
Editor: Penny Murphy
Sound Engineer: Neil Churchill
Production manager: Gemma Ashman

Archive credits:

Fox News, The Bret Baier Podcast
Netflix, Masameer


MON 00:45 Bells on Sunday (m0027l18)
[Repeat of broadcast at 05:43 on Sunday]


MON 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0027l33)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0027l35)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


MON 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0027l37)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


MON 05:30 News Briefing (m0027l39)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


MON 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0027l3c)
Banquet under the stars

Reflection with Fiona Stewart, a writer who runs a Christian arts charity.


MON 05:45 Farming Today (m0027l3f)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside


MON 05:57 Weather (m0027l3h)
Weather reports and forecasts for farmers


MON 06:00 Today (m0027l4z)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


MON 09:00 Start the Week (m0027l51)
Manufacturing and sustainability

We might live surrounded by manufactured goods but the business of making is far removed and often hidden from our lives, according to the Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, Tim Minshall. In Your Life Is Manufactured he takes readers on a tour of mega-factories to artisanal craft shops, seaports to supermarkets to reveal the systems and decisions behind manufacturing.

The former Chief Scientist of BP, Bernie Bulkin is interested in how cutting edge developments in manufacturing have helped both companies and countries remain financially competitive in the global market. In The Material Advantage he looks at the latest innovative materials and new opportunities.

But at the heart of the discussion around manufacturing in the 21st century is sustainability. Fiona Dear is Co-Director of the Restart Project, a social enterprise that runs repair events in the community, but also campaigns for broader Right 2 Repair legislation to force companies to make it easier and cheaper for people to mend products, rather than simply buying new.

Producer: Katy Hickman


MON 09:45 Café Hope (m0027l53)
From coal to cakes

Michael Beynon tells Rachel Burden how he wanted to show others that having Down Syndrome doesn't stop him from running his own Welsh cakes business.

Café Hope is our virtual Radio 4 coffee shop, where guests pop in for a brew and a chat to tell us what they’re doing to make things better in big and small ways. Think of us as sitting in your local café, cooking up plans, hearing the gossip, and celebrating the people making the world a better place.

We’re all about trying to make change. It might be a transformational project that helps an entire community, or it might be about trying to make one life a little bit easier. And the key here is in the trying. This is real life. Not everything works, and there are struggles along the way. But it’s always worth a go.

You can contact us on cafehope@bbc.co.uk


MON 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0027l55)
Mikey Madison, Jojo Moyes, Inside the RAF

Oscar-nominated actor Mikey Madison joins Clare McDonnell in the Woman’s Hour studio. She speaks about playing the title role in Anora, a film about a sex worker in New York. Mikey spent months embedded in a strip club to fully immerse herself in the world. The film is nominated for six Academy Awards as well as Bafta’s and Golden Globes – we speak to Mikey about how she’s finding receiving such attention so early in her career.

Top Guns: Inside the RAF is a Channel 4 documentary that gives viewers a rare view of RAF operations both in the air and on the ground. One of the women featured in the new series is Chief of Staff Jenni, who was recently stationed at an airbase in Romania. She joins Clare to tell us more about being a woman in the RAF and her experiences.

Jojo Moyes is the bestselling author of 17 novels, including the smash hit Me Before You which was adapted into a Hollywood film. Her new novel We All Live Here tells the story of Lila, a woman dealing with divorce, teenage children and duelling fathers. Jojo joins Clare in the studio to tell us about this ultimate sandwich situation.

Presenter: Clare McDonnell
Producer: Lottie Garton


MON 11:00 How Boarding Schools Shaped Britain (m0027l57)
1. Building men of Empire

Boarding schools have long been synonymous with leadership, privilege and tradition. Woven into the fabric of British society, these institutions have played a significant role in shaping the nation's leaders - from Empire builders to politicians.

In the first of three programmes, Nicky Campbell unravels the complex history of boarding schools, from their humble origins as day schools for the poor to their transformation into elite institutions that have defined power and influence.

But does early separation from family and loved ones come at a cost? And what impact has Britain's most enduring educational tradition had on the rest of British society?


MON 11:45 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027l5b)
1. The Whale

Maurice and Maralyn tells the story of what happened when a husband and wife decided to escape their suburban life in 1970s Derby, and instead build a boat and sail to New Zealand. Their dream crumbled after a perilous encounter with a whale left them adrift on the Pacific ocean on a tiny raft. A fight for survival followed, as well as a test of their endurance and their love for one another. Maurice and Maralyn is the Nero Books Awards 2024 Non-Fiction Winner. Dorothy Atkinson reads.

Sophie Elmhirst is a prize-winning journalist. In 2020 she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year. She first came across Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's story when she was researching a piece on the desire to escape. This is her first book.

Dorothy Atkinson is well known for her work in theatre, film and television. She has appeared in several plays by playwright Alan Ayckbourn and in films by Mike Leigh. She has appeared in television series including Joan, All Creatures Great and Small and Call the Midwife.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


MON 12:00 News Summary (m0027l5d)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


MON 12:04 You and Yours (m0027l5g)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


MON 12:57 Weather (m0027l5j)
The latest weather forecast


MON 13:00 World at One (m0027l5l)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


MON 13:45 At Your Own Peril (m0027l5n)
The Gamble

The modern world is full of risks, from natural hazards such as flooding to the existential threat of nuclear war, artificial intelligence and climate change.

With the scientific and technological progress of the past few centuries, we’ve created new hazards that threaten our very survival and, in this series, emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope explores the history of risk to find out how it’s understood, perceived and managed, and to ask how we can become more resilient as individuals, as a society and as a planet.

The Ancient Romans had a passion for dice and would even consult them to predict the future, but despite a love of gambling - and a life of danger - they didn’t have a theory of risk. Fate was in the hands of the gods.

With the discovery of probability during a game of chance between a French nobleman and two brilliant mathematicians in the middle of the 17th century, there was a revolution in human thought as, for the first time in history, we could calculate risk and begin to look - however dimly - into the future.

But did this give us mastery over our fate or simply the illusion of control? Is prediction an art or a science? Are the ‘superforecasters’ of today like the oracles of the past? And how much are we simply gambling with our future, playing with dice while the volcano smokes in the distance.

Lucy Easthope is the co-founder of the After Disaster Network in the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at the University of Durham, Professor in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of Bath and the author of When The Dust Settles.

Presenter: Lucy Easthope
Producer: Patrick Bernard
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4


MON 14:00 The Archers (m0027l2v)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Sunday]


MON 14:15 A Charles Paris Mystery (m0027l5q)
Charles Paris: Situation Tragedy

Episode 2

CHARLES PARIS ..... Bill Nighy
FRANCES ..... Suzanne Burden
MAURICE ..... Jon Glover
ASH AMOS ..... Phaldut Sharma
JUDY GILMORE ..... Christine Kavanagh
SCOTT / ARGYLL / ART TUTOR ..... Joseph Ayre
HOWARD LANGRIDGE.....Tony Turner
CHERYL .....Anna Spearpoint

Written by Jeremy Front from a story by Simon Brett
Technical Producers ..... Peter Ringrose & Alison Craig
Production Coordinator ..... Luke MacGregor
Director ..... Sally Avens

Charles has landed a role in a grimly unfunny sitcom when a PA falls through a glass roof and dies, but was it an accident or murder as Charles believes?
It's not long before he has some suspects in his sights.


MON 14:45 Marple: Three New Stories (m001gjfh)
The Unravelling by Natalie Haynes

The Unravelling (Part 2)

Agatha Christie’s iconic detective is reimagined for a new generation with a murder, a theft and a mystery where nothing is quite what it seems.

The Unravelling by Natalie Haynes
When an itinerant farm hand is found dead outside Weaver’s Haberdashers it’s chalked up as a brawl gone tragically wrong - until the body is moved and an arrow found lodged in his heart. The Weavers claim never to have met the man; Sergeant Dover has his doubts and, as usual, Jane Marple is three steps ahead of every one of them.

Read by Monica Dolan
Abridged and produced by Eilidh McCreadie

Almost 50 years since the publication of Agatha Christie's last Miss Marple novel, 'Marple: Twelve New Stories' is a collection of ingenious stories by acclaimed authors and Christie devotees.


MON 15:00 Great Lives (m0027l5s)
Mark Billingham chooses George Harrison

George Harrison was a musician, singer and songwriter who became one of the most famous people in the world as one quarter of the Beatles. That alone would merit a place in the Great Lives pantheon, but his work in the decades after the band broke up indicates a man of diverse and arguably underestimated talents.

Erupting onto the pop music scene in the 1960's, the Beatles' success was swift and dizzying; and for the rather private George, sometimes dubbed ‘the quiet Beatle’, this celebrity and adulation seems to have never quite sat comfortably. Nevertheless, he became a musical icon: responsible for a captivating collection of songs, from those he wrote with the Beatles through to his solo work; collaborating with a host of international artists; popularising Indian music and instruments; and even venturing into the movie-making business. At the same time, like many others thrust into the spotlight, George appears to have struggled with balancing success and the celebrity lifestyle with a more meaningful and spiritual existence.

This tension and how it drove George Harrison as an artist is part of what attracts crime writer, occasional musician and self-professed Beatles fanatic Mark Billingham to his story, and why he's nominated him today. Also in the studio to offer her insights is Dr Holly Tessler, a senior lecturer in music industries at the University of Liverpool, where she leads their MA programme: 'Beatles, Music Industry and Heritage'.

Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Studios Audio by Lucy Taylor.


MON 15:30 History's Heroes (m0027l5v)
History's Youngest Heroes

History's Youngest Heroes: 9. The Grisly World of Andreas Vesalius

An arrogant young man with a passion for dissecting corpses challenges his teachers and changes the course of modern medicine.

Nicola Coughlan shines a light on extraordinary young people from across history. Join her for 12 stories of rebellion, risk and the radical power of youth.

A BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds.

Producer: Suniti Somaiya
Edit Producer: Melvin Rickarby
Assistant Producer: Lorna Reader
Executive Producer: Paul Smith
Written by Alex von Tunzelmann
Commissioning editor for Radio 4: Rhian Roberts


MON 16:00 Germany: Rebellion on the Rhine (m0027l28)
[Repeat of broadcast at 13:30 on Sunday]


MON 16:30 Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics (m001t3f0)
Series 9

Demeter

Natalie tells the powerful and painful story of Demeter's fight to get justice for her daughter Persephone.

Hades conspires with his siblings Zeus and Gaia to abduct Persephone and force her to live with him in the underworld as his wife. Many versions of this story are sanitized for children but the original is not. It is clear that Persephone is tricked and trafficked, that she hates and fears Hades and never becomes accustomed to life among the dead. And that her mother Demeter is furious and grief-stricken.

The light is gone from Demeter's life and consequently from the world: crops fail and the people starve. It's only now that Zeus takes note of her pleas to get Persephone back. He doesn't really care about the people but he misses their gifts and praise.

In a tour de force solo performance recorded at the Hay festival, Natalie reclaims the goddess' story for our times. A story of a mother's love and fury that speaks painfully to us across millennia.

Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery


MON 17:00 PM (m0027l5x)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


MON 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0027l5z)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


MON 18:30 Just a Minute (m0027l61)
Series 94

3. Hesistation, Repetition, Deviation or Enunciation

Sue Perkins challenges Josie Lawrence, Ivo Graham, Sara Pascoe and Daliso Chaponda to speak for 60 seconds without repetition, deviation or hesitation. Subjects include Glastonbury Festival, Negotiating with A Toddler, and Those Listening At Home.

Production Coordinator: Sarah Nicholls
Sound Editor: Marc Willcox
Producer: Rajiv Karia
An EcoAudio certified production.

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4.


MON 19:00 The Archers (m0027l63)
Chelsea puts her foot in it, and Jolene tries to find the silver lining.


MON 19:15 Front Row (m0027l65)
Director Coralie Fargeat on The Substance, Josephine Baker's autobiography, poet Anne Carson on Elektra on stage

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Paula McGrath


MON 20:00 Rethink (m0027d7n)
Rethink: is big tech stealing your life?

Rethink examines emerging issues in politics, society, economics, technology and the UK's place in the world, and how we might approach them differently. We look at the latest thinking and research and discuss new ideas that might make the world a better place.

In this episode, we consider the changing relationship between the public and big tech companies.

Big technology companies have given us incredible social media and online services, that came with a price - our data. They used it to target advertising and to learn about our likes and dislikes, and the vast majority of us couldn't have cared less about giving up this information.

But Artificial Intelligence products have changed the game, from chatbots that can hold human-like conversations, to Generative AI that can write prose or create a picture from a simple text prompt.

And these unthinking machines require endless amounts of data to train them.

Some companies have been quietly changing their terms and conditions to access our social media and messages for AI training. Privacy regulators in the UK have called a halt to this so far, but US consumers don't have that protection.

Developers have also been scraping the internet, gathering both free and copyrighted material, and leading to legal actions in both the USA, the EU and the UK.

Copyright holders are concerned about a lack of payment or licencing deals, and also that AI imitates their content, putting them out of work. The Government has now launched a consultation to try to balance up the needs of AI and the creative industries.

But with some companies refusing to pay for content, creators have a new tool at their disposal - a program that makes stolen pictures poisonous to AI.

Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ravi Naik
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors:
Ben Zhao, Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at University of Chicago
Jack Stilgoe, Professor in science and technology studies at University College London, where he researches the governance of emerging technologies
Justine Roberts, CEO and founder of Mumsnet.
Cerys Wyn Davies, Partner at Pinscent Masons solicitors, specialising in IP and Copyright.
Neil Ross, Associate director of policy for Tech UK


MON 20:30 BBC Inside Science (m0027d7q)
Is 1.5 still alive?

1.5C.

It’s THE number we talk about when we talk about climate change.

But what does 1.5C actually mean now – and as the world saw record-breaking heat last year, does it even matter anymore?

Climate scientist Mark Maslin and environmental psychologist Lorraine Whitmarsh discuss.

Also this week, new clues about how life may have begun from a dusty space rock called Bennu, and New Scientist’s Graham Lawton brings us the science of the week, including AI’s ‘Sputnik moment’, the mice born with two fathers, and how often do unexpected discoveries happen?

Presenter: Victoria Gill
Producers: Sophie Ormiston, Ella Hubber & Gerry Holt
Editor: Martin Smith
Production Co-ordinator: Jana Bennett-Holesworth 

If you want to test your climate change knowledge, head to bbc.co.uk search for BBC Inside Science and follow the links to The Open University to take the quiz.


MON 21:00 Start the Week (m0027l51)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 today]


MON 21:45 Café Hope (m0027l53)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


MON 22:00 The World Tonight (m0027l67)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


MON 22:45 Raiders of the Lost Cask by Abir Mukherjee (m0027l69)
Steeping

Sunita's peaceful life in the village of Glentorrance is about to be upended by the arrival of a mysterious letter.
A Highland heist story specially written for Radio 4 by Abir Mukherjee, author of the Wyndham and Banerjee series.
Read by Sudha Bhuchar
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

A BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4.

Abir Mukherjee's standalone novel HUNTED was published in 2024 and is a gripping white-knuckle ride across contemporary America. Sudha Bhuchar can be seen in 'Virdee', the Bradford-set detective series coming soon to the BBC.


MON 23:00 Limelight (m001hg08)
The Incident at Ong's Hat

The Incident at Ong’s Hat - Episode 1: The Incunabula Papers

Sarah Larsen, a yoga instructor, and her friend Charlie Brill went in search of Ong’s Hat, a fabled gateway to another dimension. Now Sarah is missing, and maybe this urban legend isn’t a legend at all…

Cast:
Charlie - Corey Brill
Sarah - Avital Ash
Rodney Ascher - Himself
Det. Stecco - James Bacon
Casey - Hayley Taylor
Ringo - Benjamin Williams
Kit - Randall Keller
Denny Unger - Himself
Joseph Matheny - Himself
Newscasters: Elizabeth Saydah, Dean Wendt

Created and Produced by Jon Frechette and Todd Luoto
Inspired by Ong’s Hat: The Beginning by Joseph Matheny
Music by Blue Dot Sessions, Jon Frechette, Chris Zabriskie, Anthéne, Alessandro Barbanera, Blanket Swimming, Macrogramma (under Creative Commons)
Editing and Sound Design - Jon Frechette
Additional Editing - Brandon Kotfila and Greg Myers
Special Thanks - Ben Fineman

Written and Directed by Jon Frechette
Executive Producer - John Scott Dryden

“Ong’s Hat Survivors Interview” courtesy of Joseph Matheny
Visit thegardenofforkedpaths.com and josephmatheny.com

A Goldhawk production for Radio 4 and BBC Sounds


MON 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0027l6c)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament

TUESDAY 04 FEBRUARY 2025

TUE 00:00 Midnight News (m0027l6f)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 00:30 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027l5b)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Monday]


TUE 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0027l6h)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0027l6k)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


TUE 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0027l6m)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


TUE 05:30 News Briefing (m0027l6p)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0027l6r)
Just passing by

Reflection with Fiona Stewart, a writer who runs a Christian arts charity.


TUE 05:45 Farming Today (m0027l6t)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


TUE 06:00 Today (m0027ltn)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


TUE 09:00 Young Again (m0027ltq)
24. Adam Buxton

Kirsty Young asks podcaster Adam Buxton what advice he would give his younger self.

Buxton rose to prominence in partnership with Joe Cornish, first on TV with The Adam and Joe Show then as co-hosts of radio shows on XFM and BBC 6 Music. He has since struck out alone with his live show, Bug, and a hit interview podcast. He reflects on his time at art school, the split with Cornish, and the loss of both of his parents.

A BBC Studios Audio production.


TUE 09:30 Inside Health (m0027k1d)
Series that demystifies health issues, bringing clarity to conflicting advice.


TUE 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0027lts)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


TUE 11:00 Screenshot (m0027d4f)
Hitmen

The last few years have seen a number of new entries on the cinematic hit list, from David Fincher’s The Killer to Richard Linklater’s Hit Man. TV has also seen its fair share of hitmen in the last year; the reboot of the 2005 Brad and Angelina film Mr and Mrs Smith; Eddie Redmayne donning various elaborate disguises in a Day of the Jackal update, as well as Black Doves. It seems these days hitmen are among TV and film’s most wanted.

Mark talks to critic Christina Newland about the history of crime cinema's enigmatic icon, exploring everything from cult oddities such as Branded to Kill to the female assassin of the 90's such as Nikita and The Long Kiss Goodnight.

Ellen goes deep on cult classic Le Samouraï with Kill List and A Field in England director Ben Wheatley and academic Ginette Vincendeau; they discuss the relationship between hitmen and samurai in cinema.

Produced by Queenie Qureshi-Wales
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 11:45 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027ltv)
2. Life on the High Seas

Sophie Elmhirst is an award-winning writer, and in her account of Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's dreams of escape and their extraordinary adventure on the high seas, events take a disastrous turn. Dorothy Atkinson reads.

Maurice and Maralyn tells the story of what happened when a husband and wife decided to escape their suburban life in 1970s Derby, and instead build a boat and sail to New Zealand. Their dream crumbled after a perilous encounter with a whale left them adrift on the Pacific ocean on a tiny raft. A fight for survival followed, as well as a test of their endurance and their love for one another. Maurice and Maralyn is the Nero Books Awards 2024 Non-Fiction Winner.

Sophie Elmhirst is a prize-winning journalist. In 2020 she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year. She first came across Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's story when she was researching a piece on the desire to escape. This is her first book.

Dorothy Atkinson is well known for her work in theatre, film and television. She has appeared in several plays by playwright Alan Ayckbourn and in films by Mike Leigh. She has appeared in television series including Joan, All Creatures Great and Small and Call the Midwife.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


TUE 12:00 News Summary (m0027ltx)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


TUE 12:04 You and Yours (m0027ltz)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


TUE 12:57 Weather (m0027lv1)
The latest weather forecast


TUE 13:00 World at One (m0027lv3)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


TUE 13:45 At Your Own Peril (m0027lv5)
Cassandra

The modern world is full of risks, from natural hazards such as flooding to the existential threat of nuclear war, artificial intelligence and climate change.

With the scientific and technological progress of the past few centuries, we’ve created new hazards that threaten our very survival and in this series, emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope explores the history of risk to find out how it’s understood, perceived and managed, and to ask how we can become more resilient as individuals, as a society and as a planet.

The theory of risk that emerged from the Renaissance and Enlightenment was based on the idea of the individual as rational and self-interested - ‘homo economicus' - and decision-making as an objective science. But as Lucy Easthope discovers, risk is ultimately a subjective construct, and our perception of it is shaped not only by our psychology and feelings but by our beliefs and values.

Risk is political - which has a number of significant consequences for our management of risk, for if we can’t agree on the risks that face us as a society then how are we supposed to prevent these hazards from becoming a disaster?

Presenter: Lucy Easthope
Producer: Patrick Bernard
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Lucy Easthope is the co-founder of the After Disaster Network in the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at the University of Durham, Professor in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of Bath and the author of “When The Dust Settles”.


TUE 14:00 The Archers (m0027l63)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Monday]


TUE 14:15 This Thing of Darkness (p0h2jxkl)
Series 3

The Christmas Killers

by Frances Poet with monologues by Eileen Horne

Part Four – The Christmas Killers

Dr Alex Bridges is an expert forensic psychiatrist and psychotherapist, assessing and treating perpetrators of serious crime.

This gripping drama explores the psychological impact of murder on teenage perpetrators and follows the fortunes of participants in a Long Sentence therapy group.

How do you come to terms with your own capacity for violence?

Dr Alex Bridges ….. Lolita Chakrabarti
Anthony ….. Lorn Macdonald
Finn ….. Reuben Joseph
Twitch …. Brian Ferguson
Simon ….. Shaun Mason
The Governor….. Karen Bartke
Dani ….. Elysia Welch
Dead Elvis….Andy Clark

Sound Design: Fraser Jackson

Series Consultant: Dr Gwen Adshead

Series format created by Lucia Haynes, Audrey Gillan, Eileen Horne, Gaynor Macfarlane, Anita Vettesse and Kirsty Williams.

Thanks to Victoria Byrne, Barlinnie Prison, Vox Liminis Distant Voices Project and Prof Fergus McNeill.

Produced by Gaynor Macfarlane and Kirsty Williams

A BBC Scotland Production directed by Kirsty Williams


TUE 15:00 The Gift (m00255wz)
Series 2

4. Taboo

One man’s determination to find his mother reveals an unbearable secret.

It’s the perfect gift for the person who already has everything. It promises to tell you who you really are, and how you’re connected to the world. A present that will reveal your genetic past – but could also disrupt your future.

In the first series of The Gift, Jenny Kleeman looked at the extraordinary truths that can unravel when people take at-home DNA tests like Ancestry and 23andMe.

For the second series, Jenny is going deeper into the unintended consequences - the aftershocks - set in motion when people link up to the enormous global DNA database.

Reconnecting and rupturing families, uprooting identities, unearthing long-buried secrets - what happens after technology, genealogy and identity collide?

Presenter: Jenny Kleeman
Producer: Conor Garrett
Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett
Editor: Philip Sellars
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke

The Gift is a BBC Studios Audio production for BBC Radio 4

Details of organisations providing support with mental health, adoption and feelings of despair are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline


TUE 15:30 Thinking Allowed (m0027lv7)
Touch

When, where, and who gets to touch and be touched, and who decides? How does touch bring us closer together or push us apart? These are urgent contemporary questions, but they have their origins in late nineteenth and early twentieth-century Britain. Laurie Taylor talks to Simeon Koole, Senior Lecturer in Liberal Arts and History at the University of Bristol about his new study of the way in which the crowded city compelled new discussions about touch, as people crammed into subway cars, skirted criminals in London's dense fogs and visited tea shops, all the while negotiating the boundaries of personal space. How did these historical encounters shape and transform our understanding of physical contact into the present day?

Also, digital touch. Carey Jewitt Professor of Technology at the Institute of Education, London, explores the way technology is transforming our experience of touch. Touch matters. It is fundamental to how we know ourselves and each other, and it is central to how we communicate. So how will the the digital touch embedded in many technologies, from wearable devices and gaming hardware to tactile robots and future technologies, change our sense of connection with each other. What would it be like if we could hug or touch digitally across distance? How might we establish trust or protect our privacy and safety? How might radically different forms of touch impact our relationships and the future?

Producer: Jayne Egerton


TUE 16:00 Moving Pictures (m0027lv9)
The War of Troy tapestry

Cathy FitzGerald invites you to discover new details in old masterpieces. Each episode of Moving Pictures is devoted to a single artwork – and you’re invited to look as well as listen, by following a link to a high-resolution image made by Google Arts & Culture. Zoom in and you can see the pores of the canvas, the sweep of individual brushstrokes, the shimmer of pointillist dots.

Things get brutal this week, as we take a closer look at an extraordinary textile from the V&A - the War of Troy tapestry. It takes us to Troy in the ninth year of the siege, as Penthesilea, the Queen of the Amazons, rides out to meet the Greeks. Cathy FitzGerald hears why Renaissance nobles were fascinated by the Trojan myth and learns an excellent trick for cleaning a tapestry with a loaf of bread.

To see the high-resolution image of the painting, visit www.bbc.co.uk/movingpictures. Scroll down and follow the link to explore The War of Troy tapestry.

Interviewees: Venetia Bridges, Thomas Campbell, Paula Nuttall, Silvija Banić, Angus Patterson.

Producer and presenter: Cathy FitzGerald

Executive producer: Sarah Cuddon
Mix engineer: Mike Woolley
Art history consultant: Leah Kharibian

A White Stiletto production for BBC Radio 4

Picture credit: © Victoria and Albert Museum, London / Kira Zumkley


TUE 16:30 When It Hits the Fan (m0027lvc)
Who's in the news for all the wrong reasons? With David Yelland and Simon Lewis.


TUE 17:00 PM (m0027lvf)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


TUE 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0027lvh)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


TUE 18:30 Alexei Sayle's Imaginary Sandwich Bar (m001d59f)
Series 4

A Monopoly of Violence

Alexei considers the role of the police force, discusses his own involvement in the ‘spy cops’ scandal, draws comparisons between President Assad and a beloved British comedian and details his seven stages of grief post the 2019 general election.

A mixture of stand-up, memoir, and philosophy from behind the counter of an imaginary sandwich bar.

Written and performed by Alexei Sayle.

With original music and lyrics from Tim Sutton.

Produced by Joe Nunnery

A BBC Studios Production


TUE 19:00 The Archers (m0027k0x)
Alice plays gooseberry, and there’s a painful experience for Robert.


TUE 19:15 Front Row (m0027lvk)
25 Years of 21st Century: Film and Television

Presenter: Samira Ahmed
Producer: Claire Bartleet


TUE 20:00 Today (m0027k0g)
The Today Debate

The Today Debate is about taking a subject and pulling it apart with more time than we could ever have during the programme in the morning.

Nick Robinson is joined by a panel of guests to consider a topical issue in front of a live audience.


TUE 20:45 In Touch (m0027lvm)
News, views and information for people who are blind or partially sighted.


TUE 21:00 World Of Secrets (m0026jxn)
The Bad Guru

The Bad Guru: 2. The Technique

Miranda joins thousands of the guru Gregorian Bivolaru’s followers from around the world at a yoga festival in a Romanian seaside resort. It’s a two-week-long holiday and her food and accommodation is free. But is she being drawn into something darker?

This episode contains explicit sexual content.

Host: Cat McShane
Producers: Emma Weatherill and Cat McShane
Sound design: Melvin Rickarby
Production Coordinator: Juliette Harvey
Unit Manager: Lucy Bannister
Executive Producer: Innes Bowen
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Commissioning Executive: Tracy Williams


TUE 21:30 The Bottom Line (m0027d74)
Robots On the Doorstep: Is This The Future Of Food Delivery?

Evan Davis talks to the Estonian Ahti Heinla, co-founder of robot delivery firm Starship Technologies, which is hoping to expand across the UK. Evan hears about Ahti's early life in Estonia, how he competed in a Nasa competition, the start of the delivery system in Milton Keynes and how he thinks robot deliveries will grow in the future in Britain and worldwide.


TUE 22:00 The World Tonight (m0027lvp)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


TUE 22:45 Raiders of the Lost Cask by Abir Mukherjee (m0027lvr)
Proof

In the new thriller from the author of the Wyndham and Banerjee series, a woman's peaceful life in the Scottish Highlands is about to be shattered when she stumbles on an intruder in her shop.

Read by Sudha Bhuchar
Written by Abir Mukherjee
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

A BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4.

Abir Mukherjee's standalone novel HUNTED was published in 2024 and is a gripping white-knuckle ride across contemporary America. Sudha Bhuchar can be seen in 'Virdee', the Bradford-set detective series coming soon to the BBC.


TUE 23:00 Uncanny (m0011jxv)
Series 1

Case 4: My Best Friend's Ghost

Laura, a young woman with a wild streak, leaves home and finds a room in a flat-share where she meets Anna, who becomes her best friend. When Anna dies tragically from cancer, Laura is heartbroken, but then… Anna comes back.

As Laura tells Danny Robins her story, he explores the world of mediums (is it really possible to contact the dead?) and investigates the greatest of all mysteries – what happens to us when we die?

Written and presented by Danny Robins
Experts: Chris French and Ashley Darkwood
Editor and Sound Designer: Charlie Brandon-King
Music: Evelyn Sykes
Theme Music by Lanterns on the Lake
Produced by Danny Robins and Simon Barnard

A Bafflegab and Uncanny Media production for BBC Radio 4


TUE 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0027lvv)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament

WEDNESDAY 05 FEBRUARY 2025

WED 00:00 Midnight News (m0027lvx)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 00:30 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027ltv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Tuesday]


WED 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0027lw1)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0027lw5)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


WED 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0027lw7)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


WED 05:30 News Briefing (m0027lwc)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


WED 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0027lwf)
Don't Give Up

Reflection with Fiona Stewart, a writer who runs a Christian arts charity.


WED 05:45 Farming Today (m0027lwk)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


WED 06:00 Today (m0027k06)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


WED 09:00 Sideways (m0027k08)
70. Digital Ghosts

Amy Kurzweil’s dad is a famous inventor, futurist and pioneer in the field of AI. In 2015, she discovers his aspiration to make an AI chatbot of her late grandfather, Fred. Fred was a musician who dramatically escaped the Holocaust, but he died before Amy was born. Matthew Syed delves into Amy’s fascinating journey with her father to build the ‘Fredbot’ and have an online conversation with the grandfather she never met.

He also hears from Lynne Nieto, who worked with her late husband to make an interactive AI video of him before he passed away. Today, she struggles to engage with it.

The idea of using AI to simulate conversations with the dead troubles Matthew and raises all sorts of ethical questions. With the help of experts, he discovers how similar concepts were once debated by ancient Chinese philosophers and explores how digital ghosts could affect the grieving process.

With cartoonist and writer Amy Kurzweil; Alexis Elder, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota Duluth and author of the forthcoming book The Ethics of Digital Ghosts: Confucian, Mohist, and Zhuangist Perspectives on AI and Death; grief therapist and author of The Loss Prescription, Dr Chloe Paidoussis-Mitchell; and Lynne Nieto.

Featuring references to the graphic novel Artificial: A Love Story by Amy Kurzweil, published in 2022 by Catapult Books.

Presenter: Matthew Syed
Producer: Vishva Samani
Series Editor: Georgia Moodie
Sound Design and Mix: Daniel Kempson
Theme music by Ioana Selaru
A Novel production for BBC Radio 4


WED 09:30 In Dark Corners (m0027k0b)
Series 2

5. This Evil Thing

Journalist Alex Renton is sent a secret membership list of a pro-paedophile group active in the 1970s and 80s.

It’s a lot to take in. Alex is not only a journalist, he’s a survivor of child sexual abuse.

The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) campaigned to 'normalise' sex between children and adults. Their spokesmen claimed that adult members always sought consent.

But from the moment Alex was passed the list he knew that was a lie. He recognised some of those names and he knew they had convictions for child sexual abuse.

The List set Alex off on a dizzying journey into the dark history of PIE. As he uncovered more, he started to wonder: where were all those hundreds of members now? Could children still be at risk?

316 names. Most with UK addresses. All but a handful are men.

In this final episode Alex makes contact with some of the former members of PIE; people he believes may still come into contact with children.

Archive credits: BBC, Nationwide 1981; BBC, Newsnight 1983; BBC Parliament, 2025.

Presenter: Alex Renton
Producer: Caitlin Smith
Executive Producers: Gillian Wheelan and Gail Champion
Story Consultants: Jack Kibble-White and Kirsty Williams
Sound design: Jon Nicholls
Theme Tune: Jeremy Warmsley

Details of organisations offering information and support for victims of child sexual abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline


WED 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0027k0d)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


WED 11:00 Today (m0027k0g)
[Repeat of broadcast at 20:00 on Tuesday]


WED 11:45 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027k0j)
3. Adrift

In Sophie Elmhirst's story of shipwreck and love, Maurice and Maralyn are adrift in the Pacific Ocean struggling to survive on a tiny raft. Dorothy Atkinson reads.

Maurice and Maralyn tells the story of what happened when a husband and wife decided to escape their suburban life in 1970s Derby, and instead build a boat and sail to New Zealand. Their dream crumbled after a perilous encounter with a whale left them adrift on the Pacific ocean on a tiny raft. A fight for survival followed, as well as a test of their endurance and their love for one another. Maurice and Maralyn is the Nero Books Awards 2024 Non-Fiction Winner.

Sophie Elmhirst is a prize-winning journalist. In 2020 she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year. She first came across Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's story when she was researching a piece on the desire to escape. This is her first book.

Dorothy Atkinson is well known for her work in theatre, film and television. She has appeared in several plays by playwright Alan Ayckbourn and in films by Mike Leigh. She has appeared in television series including Joan, All Creatures Great and Small and Call the Midwife.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


WED 12:00 News Summary (m0027k0l)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


WED 12:04 You and Yours (m0027k0n)
News and discussion of consumer affairs


WED 12:57 Weather (m0027k0q)
The latest weather forecast


WED 13:00 World at One (m0027k0s)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


WED 13:45 At Your Own Peril (m0027k0v)
The Great Tide

The modern world is full of risks, from natural hazards such as flooding to the existential threat of nuclear war, artificial intelligence and climate change.

With the scientific and technological progress of the past few centuries, we’ve created new hazards that threaten our very survival and in this series, emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope explores the history of risk to find out how it’s understood, perceived and managed, and to ask how we can become more resilient as individuals, as a society and as a planet.

The North Sea Flood of 1953 - the combination of a high spring tide and a storm surge which swept across the East Coast killing 307 people in England - was described as the worst natural disaster in Britain of the 20th century.

It was also the birth of modern risk management as the state began to recognise its increased responsibility - and accountability - in preventing future disasters.
From cost-benefit analysis and risk assessments to the insurance industry, Lucy Easthope finds out how we protect ourselves from these hazards, and whether there is ever such a thing as a ‘natural’ disaster or if they are always the result of political choices.

Presenter: Lucy Easthope
Producer: Patrick Bernard
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Lucy Easthope is the co-founder of the After Disaster Network in the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at the University of Durham, Professor in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of Bath and the author of “When The Dust Settles”.


WED 14:00 The Archers (m0027k0x)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Tuesday]


WED 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0027k0z)
Margaret White and the Alcoran of Mahomet

By Hannah Khalil

1649 was a significant year in British History because King Charles I was executed for treason. A lesser known, but arguably equally important, historical moment occurred in that same year: the first publication of the Qu'ran in English. Surprisingly, it was instigated by an English woman, called Margaret White, who was the wife of a printer called Robert based in Fleet Street, London.

Based on historical research, this drama imagines the circumstances as to how the Qu'ran came to be first published in the English language.

Cast:
Margaret ......... Erin Shanagher
Ayesha ..................Laila Alj
Robert ...................Graeme Hawley
Nicholas ............ Jon-Paul Bell
Sergeant ............ Hamilton Berstock

Production Co-ordinator - Pippa Day
Studio Manager- Amy Brennan
Sound Designer- Sharon Hughes
Producer/Director- Jessica Mitic

With thanks to Professor Suzanne Trill, the Arab British Centre and Dr Johnson’s House Museum
Historical consultant-Professor Matthew Birchwood

A BBC Studios Audio Production for Radio 4.


WED 15:00 Money Box (m0027k11)
The Money Box team invites listeners and a panel of experts to discuss one personal finance topic in depth.


WED 15:30 The Artificial Human (m0027k13)
What Is Trump's AI Agenda?

Ai is at a turning point, Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong ask what direction it will take and who is advising the most powerful man in the world on what vision of AI to pursue?

There are numerous camps vying for President Trump's favour over how to develop Ai. There are those demanding that it be allowed to run free without the burden of innovation stifling regulation. Others still cling to the notion that the risks of rampant Ai still need to be curbed, while a third camp want to see 'big tech' working even closer with government to harness the power of this new 'wonder technology' and beat China both economically and in cyber security.

Who will be listened to, and what does it mean for the rest of a world that's a good deal more sceptical about the potential of Ai and its risks? Andrew Strait Associate Director at the Ada Lovelace Institute helps Aleks and Kevin understand the various characters pushing their Ai agendas, while Nobel prize winning economist Daron Acemoglu explains the possible consequences of what's being proposed and how it is only a very narrow view of what Ai could be and how it could benefit mankind.

Presenters: Aleks Krotoski and Kevin Fong
Producer: Peter McManus
Researcher: Juliet Conway
Sound: Sean Mullervy


WED 16:00 The Media Show (m0027jyn)
Topical programme about the fast-changing media world.


WED 17:00 PM (m0027k15)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


WED 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0027k17)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


WED 18:30 ReincarNathan (m001g9j0)
Series 3

Snowshoe Hare

Nathan Blakely was a popstar. But he was useless, died, and was reincarnated. The comedy about Nathan’s adventures in the afterlife returns for a third series, starring Daniel Rigby, Ashley McGuire and guest-starring Elis James as Gary Grape.

In the season finale, Nathan is brought back to life as a Showshoe Hare in the Rocky Mountains. And this time he’s got a friend - a hare called Gary Grape, a reincarnation of Nathan’s arch nemesis from his human days. Can Nathan get Gary to forgive him for being such a terrible human being and finally get to Elysium? Will he ever learn to do the right thing and make it back to human again?

Cast:
Ashley McGuire - Carol
Daniel Rigby – Nathan
Elis James – Gary Grape

Writers: Tom Craine and Henry Paker

Producer: Harriet Jaine

Sound: Jerry Peal

Music Composed by: Phil Lepherd

A Talkback production for BBC Radio 4


WED 19:00 The Archers (m0027jxw)
Fallon makes the most of the situation, and Zainab attempts to make amends.


WED 19:15 Front Row (m0027k19)
September 5 director Tim Fehlbaum, new Motherland spin-off TV series Amandaland, the history of Slapstick

Presenter: Kirsty Wark
Producer: Fiona McLellan


WED 20:00 AntiSocial (m0027d3h)
Bats v trains

Do we have to choose between conserving nature and growing the economy?

The Chancellor Rachel Reeves has been complaining about the £100m being spent on a tunnel to stop bats being squished by trains on the HS2 railway line. A debate about whether looking after the environment is getting in the way of developing Britain's infrastructure has ensued.

Is nature conservation getting in the way of economic growth - and can there only be one winner?

Presenter: Adam Fleming
Producers: Josephine Casserly, Simon Tulett, Beth Ashmead-Latham
Editor: Penny Murphy
Production coordinator: Janet Staples
Studio engineer: Andy Mills


WED 20:45 How They Made Us Doubt Everything (m001yxkv)
Talc Tales: 4. ‘Time for more confusion’

When talc might be listed as a potential carcinogen, the industry assembles a ‘talc task force’. It’s the year 2000 and the talc industry has heard something big is coming its way. The US government agencies tasked with listing cancer causing substances are set to include talc. The initial recommendation was to list talc containing asbestiform fibres as ‘known to be a human carcinogen’. They’d list talc that did not contain asbestiform fibres as ‘reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen’. In response, the industry lobbying group holds an emergency conference call and sets out a plan. ‘To be listed on the Report on Carcinogens can be devastating’, one internal industry memo asserts, listing the financial losses they would incur. How would they respond? An industry memo sets out one of their tactics: ‘Time to come up with more confusion’.

Presenter and Producer: Phoebe Keane
Sound mix: James Beard
Series Editor: Matt Willis


WED 21:00 Sideways (m0026ngb)
25 Years of the 21st Century

25 Years of the 21st Century: 4. The Age of Changing Families

As we swipe to find love and consult chatbot therapists, Matthew Syed asks how technology has altered the way we approach dating, friendship and community.

It’s not all technology, though. Key changes in social trends, medical innovations, demography and economic factors have also played a part in how people live. How have relationships changed in the past 25 years?

Contributors
Margaret MacMillan, Emeritus Professor of International History at the University of Oxford and author of several acclaimed books.
Meghan Nolan, an Irish novelist and journalist based in New York.
Sarah Harper, Professor of Gerontology at the University of Oxford and a fellow at University College.

Production team
Editor: Sara Wadeson
Producers: Emma Close, Marianna Brain, Michaela Graichen
Sound: Tom Brignell
Production Co-ordinators: Janet Staples and Katie Morrison

Archive
Steve Jobs launches the Apple iPhone, 2007


WED 21:30 Inside Health (m0027k1d)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:30 on Tuesday]


WED 22:00 The World Tonight (m0027k1g)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


WED 22:45 Raiders of the Lost Cask by Abir Mukherjee (m0027k1j)
Feints

In the new thriller from the author of the Wyndham and Banerjee series, a woman's peaceful life in the Scottish Highlands is shattered when a figure from her past tracks her down. She's got five days to find a hundred grand, and only Margot from the village shop can help her.
Read by Sudha Bhuchar
Written by Abir Mukherjee
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

A BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4.

Abir Mukherjee's standalone novel HUNTED was published in 2024 and is a gripping white-knuckle ride across contemporary America. Sudha Bhuchar can be seen in 'Virdee', the Bradford-set detective series coming soon to the BBC.


WED 23:00 Alison Spittle: Petty Please (m0027k1l)
Series 1

The Glitterbabes

In this new series for Radio 4, comedian Alison Spittle explores some of her longest and deepest held grudges. The kind of thing most people would be ashamed to still be thinking about 30 minutes later, let alone contemplating exacting retribution decades on.

Alison and her Wheel of Misfortune cohost Kerry Katona have one very important thing in common. They were both ejected from girl bands at crucial stages of their careers. In Alison's case, aged 9, from primary school breaktime supergroup The Glitterbabes. It's an injustice that's never left her. Can Kerry help her find closure?

Written by Alison Spittle & Simon Mulholland
With Kerry Katona
Script edited by Joel Morris
Produced by Lyndsay Fenner

A Mighty Bunny Production for BBC Radio 4


WED 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0027k1n)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament

THURSDAY 06 FEBRUARY 2025

THU 00:00 Midnight News (m0027k1q)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 00:30 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027k0j)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Wednesday]


THU 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0027k1s)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0027k1v)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


THU 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0027k1x)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


THU 05:30 News Briefing (m0027k1z)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


THU 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0027k21)
Appreciating Grasshoppers

Reflection with Fiona Stewart, a writer who runs a Christian arts charity.


THU 05:45 Farming Today (m0027k23)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


THU 06:00 Today (m0027jws)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


THU 09:00 In Our Time (m0027jwv)
Sir John Soane

The architect Sir John Soane, who lived from 1753 to 1837, was the son of a bricklayer. He rose up the ranks of his profession as an architect to see many of his designs realised to great acclaim, particularly the Bank of England and the Law Courts, although his work there has been largely destroyed. He is now best known for his house in Lincoln’s Inn Fields in London, which he remodelled and crammed with antiquities and artworks: he wanted visitors to experience the house as a dramatic grand tour of Europe in microcosm.

He became professor of architecture at the Royal Academy, and in a series of influential lectures he set out his belief in the power of buildings to enlighten people about “the poetry of architecture”. Visitors to the museum and his other works can see his trademark architectural features such as his shallow dome, which went on to inspire Britain's red telephone boxes.

With:

Frances Sands, the Curator of Drawings and Books at Sir John Soane’s Museum

Frank Salmon, Associate Professor of the History of Art at the University of Cambridge and Director of the Ax:son Johnson Centre for the Study of Classical Architecture

And

Gillian Darley, historian and author of Soane's biography.


THU 09:45 Strong Message Here (m0027jwx)
Armando Iannucci and Helen Lewis are joined by a guest, journalist Rob Hutton.


THU 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0027jwz)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


THU 11:00 This Cultural Life (m0027jx1)
David Hare

The premiere of David Hare’s play Plenty at the National Theatre in 1978 marked him out as one of the UK’s most skilled and socially conscious playwrights. Plenty transferred to Broadway, Hare adapted it into a film starring Meryl Streep, and in the following years he became known as a writer for whom the political and the personal are deeply entwined. Often referred to as Britain’s pre-eminent ‘state of the nation playwright’, his plays in the 1980s examined a wide range of social and political issues, including the Church of England in Racing Demon, the judiciary in Murmuring Judges and party politics in The Absence of War. He tackled international geopolitics in Via Dolorosa - about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and the invasion of Iraq with Stuff Happens and the Vertical Hour. Equally skilled as a screenwriter, his film screenplays for The Hours and The Reader saw him twice nominated for Academy Awards. David Hare was knighted in 1998 for ‘services to theatre’.

He talks to John Wilson about how his lower-middle class background and family life in Bexhill-on-Sea stimulated his imagination. He pays tribute to some of the most formative people in his life: his Cambridge university tutor, the Welsh writer and academic Raymond Williams, whose maxim that ‘culture is ordinary’ had a profound effect on his life as a writer; the actress Kate Nelligan, who starred in several of Hare's plays, including Plenty; and his wife Nicole Farhi who, he says, transformed his idea of himself and who inadvertently helped inspire one of his best loved plays, Skylight.

Producer: Edwina Pitman


THU 11:45 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027jx3)
4. Hope Dwindles

In Sophie Elmhirst's story of shipwreck, survival and love, hope of rescue dwindles after 60 days adrift on the Pacific Ocean. Dorothy Atkinson reads.

Maurice and Maralyn tells the story of what happened when a husband and wife decided to escape their suburban life in 1970s Derby, and instead build a boat and sail to New Zealand. Their dream crumbled after a perilous encounter with a whale left them adrift on the Pacific ocean on a tiny raft. A fight for survival followed, as well as a test of their endurance and their love for one another. Maurice and Maralyn is the Nero Books Awards 2024 Non-Fiction Winner.

Sophie Elmhirst is a prize-winning journalist. In 2020 she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year. She first came across Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's story when she was researching a piece on the desire to escape. This is her first book.

Dorothy Atkinson is well known for her work in theatre, film and television. She has appeared in several plays by playwright Alan Ayckbourn and in films by Mike Leigh. She has appeared in television series including Joan, All Creatures Great and Small and Call the Midwife.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


THU 12:00 News Summary (m0027jx6)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


THU 12:04 The Bottom Line (m0027jx9)
Evan Davis hosts the business conversation show, with insight from the people at the top.


THU 12:32 Sliced Bread (m0027jxf)
Greg Foot investigates the so-called wonder products making bold claims.


THU 12:57 Weather (m0027jxk)
The latest weather forecast


THU 13:00 World at One (m0027jxp)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


THU 13:45 At Your Own Peril (m0027jxs)
Show Me The Bodies

The modern world is full of risks, from natural hazards such as flooding to the existential threat of nuclear war, artificial intelligence and climate change.

With the scientific and technological progress of the past few centuries, we’ve created new hazards that threaten our very survival and in this series, emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope explores the history of risk to find out how it’s understood, perceived and managed, and to ask how we can become more resilient as individuals, as a society and as a planet.

Every few years, the government publishes the National Risk Register, a long list of the most serious short-term hazards that we face as a society.

But what happens when these acute risks are themselves the product of chronic risks? How do we deal with these long-term risks within the short-term cycle of politics? And why do we always wait until there is a disaster before we do anything?

As Lucy Easthope discovers, not acting is the same as acting - and when it comes to the prevention of a disaster like the COVID-19 pandemic or the Grenfell Tower fire, the consequences of not acting can be catastrophic.

Presenter: Lucy Easthope
Producer: Patrick Bernard
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Lucy Easthope is the co-founder of the After Disaster Network in the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at the University of Durham, Professor in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of Bath and the author of “When The Dust Settles”.


THU 14:00 The Archers (m0027jxw)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Wednesday]


THU 14:15 Drama on 4 (m0027jxy)
Chicken Burger N Chips

Corey and his friends are hanging out at a local fried chicken shop. It's their last summer together before going to university. Then along comes Jodie, alluring and intelligent, and awakens him to the progressing changes in south London's Lewisham Borough. Corey must now consider the choices that will affect his future.

Chicken Burger N Chips is a raw coming-of-age story about growing up in south London amid redevelopment and gentrification. Corey Bovell's script is fast-paced and witty and tells a fictional account, inspired by his own experiences, of the consequences of change's impact on the lives of a community.

Corey Bovell's play tells a story about gentrification and its impact on the lives of its youths. Chicken Burger N Chips is an audio adaptation of the one-person play that takes the audience through determining which of the protagonist's options will be best for him, amid his changing neighbourhood, a new love, honouring friendships, and dedication to his family.

An unedited production for BBC Radio 4


THU 15:00 Ramblings (m0027jy0)
Capel y ffin and the Twmpa

Clare meets a passionate proponent of walking today on a hike around Capel y ffin and the Twmpa in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. Andrew Green has just published a book called Voices on the Path, a History of Walking in Wales and for him it’s not just a case of putting one foot in front of the other and admiring the scenery, it’s “an activity loaded with all kinds of social, cultural and economic associations”.

Their immediate surroundings have long attracted writers and artists from across the generations including William and Dorothy Wordsworth, JMW Turner, Bruce Chatwin and Allen Ginsberg. Also drawn to the beauty of Capel y ffin was the poet and painter, David Jones, described in 1965 as the 'best living British painter' by the then Director of the National Gallery. Peter Wakelin's book 'Hill Rhythms' tells Jones' story, which he wanted to share with Clare on the walk but a twisted ankle meant he had to remain at base, however he used the time to seek out the potential location of one of Jones's best loved paintings.

They met at the tiny Capel-y-ffin chapel on the Monmouthshire/Powys border and walked up the Twmpa - also known as Lord Hereford’s Knob - in the Black Mountains returning via the valley of Nant Bwch. A walk of just over six miles.

Grid Ref for where they met: SO253316

Presenter: Clare Balding
Producer: Karen Gregor


THU 15:27 Radio 4 Appeal (m0027jy2)
[Repeat of broadcast at 07:54 on Sunday]


THU 15:30 Word of Mouth (m0027jy4)
Creating Languages for Film and Television with Professor David Adger

David Adger is Professor of Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London. He's created new languages for TV series and films and he explains to Michael Rosen how he goes about it. For his latest language he used existing Creole languages for his 'conlang', or constructed (artificial) natural language. He talks Michael through the grammar and language principles he applies to his creations and lets him try his hand at the monsters' language he invented for a televised version of Beowulf.

Producer: Maggie Ayre


THU 16:00 Rethink (m0027jy6)
Rethink... crime prevention

In 2024, more than two million crimes went unsolved in England and Wales, with police unable to identify a suspect. That figure has increased by 180,000 since 2022, despite there being 86,000 fewer crimes in the same period.

So with detection rates down, and constant financial pressures on the police services across the UK, should crime prevention play a greater role in policing? Targeting preventable crimes and the people most likely to commit them, a process called "focused deterrence" is being trialled at five sites in England. Police services already have better intelligence resources available than in any time in history, and they are also working with care services and other agencies to flag up potential problems.

How could crime prevention be taken further? Would a more academic approach to policing result in knowledge being spread more quickly, and how could police be better prepared for emerging crimes as society and technology change?

Ultimately, could it lead to lower crime rates and financial savings, and is there any evidence to suggest it does either?

Presenter: Ben Ansell
Producer: Ivana Davidovic
Editor: Clare Fordham

Contributors:


THU 16:30 BBC Inside Science (m0027jy8)
A weekly programme looking at the science that's changing our world.


THU 17:00 PM (m0027jyb)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


THU 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0027jyd)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


THU 18:30 P.O.V. (m0027jyg)
Series 1

A Guy Who Decides... Decides

The internet's best comedy creators bring you a sketch show that features drunk people using their inside voices, Christmas getting cancelled, teachers getting decoded, and A Guy Who Decides... deciding.

Written and performed by Davina Bentley, Jake Bhardwaj, Emma Doran, Daniel Foxx, Ms. Frazzled, Rosie Holt, Kathy Maniura, Jimmy Rees, Leah Rudick, Will Sebag-Montefiore and Ali Woods.

Recorded in London, Dublin, Los Angeles, and Sydney.

Edited by Rich Evans at Syncbox Post
Produced by Ed Morrish

A Lead Mojo production for BBC Radio 4


THU 19:00 The Archers (m0027jyj)
Lynda finds herself in over her head, and Hannah faces an awkward moment.


THU 19:15 Front Row (m0027jyl)
Review: The Last Showgirl, Oedipus, Nobel author Han Kang's novel We Do Not Part

Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe
Producer: Corinna Jones


THU 20:00 The Media Show (m0027jyn)
[Repeat of broadcast at 16:00 on Wednesday]


THU 21:00 Loose Ends (m0027mgv)
[Repeat of broadcast at 18:15 on Saturday]


THU 21:45 Strong Message Here (m0027jwx)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:45 today]


THU 22:00 The World Tonight (m0027jys)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


THU 22:45 Raiders of the Lost Cask by Abir Mukherjee (m0027jyv)
Cask Finish

In the new thriller from the author of the Wyndham and Banerjee series, a woman's peaceful life in the Scottish Highlands is shattered when a figure from her past threatens blackmail. Her friend Roddy has created a whisky fit for the finest palate, but will it be enough to save Sunita?

Read by Sudha Bhuchar
Written by Abir Mukherjee
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

A BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4.

Abir Mukherjee's standalone novel HUNTED was published in 2024 and is a gripping white-knuckle ride across contemporary America. Sudha Bhuchar can be seen in 'Virdee', the Bradford-set detective series coming soon to the BBC.


THU 23:00 The Today Podcast (m0027jyy)
Amol and Nick's take on the biggest stories of the week.


THU 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0027jz0)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament

FRIDAY 07 FEBRUARY 2025

FRI 00:00 Midnight News (m0027jz2)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 00:30 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027jx3)
[Repeat of broadcast at 11:45 on Thursday]


FRI 00:48 Shipping Forecast (m0027jz4)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 01:00 Selection of BBC World Service Programmes (m0027jz6)
BBC Radio 4 joins the BBC World Service.


FRI 05:20 Shipping Forecast (m0027jz8)
The latest weather reports and forecasts for UK shipping


FRI 05:30 News Briefing (m0027jzb)
The latest news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 05:43 Prayer for the Day (m0027jzd)
Head Screwed On

Reflection with Fiona Stewart, a writer who runs a Christian arts charity.


FRI 05:45 Farming Today (m0027jzg)
The latest news about food, farming and the countryside.


FRI 06:00 Today (m0027lbt)
News and current affairs, including Sports Desk, Weather and Thought for the Day.


FRI 09:00 Desert Island Discs (m0027l20)
[Repeat of broadcast at 10:00 on Sunday]


FRI 10:00 Woman's Hour (m0027lby)
Women's voices and women's lives - topical conversations to inform, challenge and inspire.


FRI 11:00 The Food Programme (m0027lc1)
Investigating every aspect of the food we eat


FRI 11:45 Maurice and Maralyn by Sophie Elmhirst (m0027lc3)
5. Shipwreck and Marriage

In Sophie Elmhirst's story of endurance and love 117 days have passed since Maurice and Maralyn were cast adrift on the Pacific Ocean after a whale struck their boat. Hopes of rescue have faded daily. Dorothy Atkinson reads.

Maurice and Maralyn tells the story of what happened when a husband and wife decided to escape their suburban life in 1970s Derby, and instead build a boat and sail to New Zealand. Their dream crumbled after a perilous encounter with a whale left them adrift on the Pacific ocean on a tiny raft. A fight for survival followed, as well as a test of their endurance and their love for one another. Maurice and Maralyn is the Nero Books Awards 2024 Non-Fiction Winner.

Sophie Elmhirst is a prize-winning journalist. In 2020 she won the British Press Award for Feature Writer of the Year. She first came across Maurice and Maralyn Bailey's story when she was researching a piece on the desire to escape. This is her first book.

Dorothy Atkinson is well known for her work in theatre, film and television. She has appeared in several plays by playwright Alan Ayckbourn and in films by Mike Leigh. She has appeared in television series including Joan, All Creatures Great and Small and Call the Midwife.

Abridged by Richard Hamilton.
Produced by Elizabeth Allard


FRI 12:00 News Summary (m0027lc5)
The latest national and international news from BBC Radio 4.


FRI 12:04 AntiSocial (m0027lc7)
Adam Fleming helps you work out what the culture war arguments are really about.


FRI 12:57 Weather (m0027lc9)
The latest weather forecast


FRI 13:00 World at One (m0027lcc)
Forty-five minutes of news, analysis and comment.


FRI 13:45 At Your Own Peril (m0027lcf)
The Precipice

The modern world is full of risks, from natural hazards such as flooding to the existential threat of nuclear war, artificial intelligence and climate change.

With the scientific and technological progress of the past few centuries, we’ve created new hazards that threaten our very survival and in this series, emergency planner and disaster recovery expert Lucy Easthope explores the history of risk to find out how it’s understood, perceived and managed, and to ask how we can become more resilient as individuals, as a society and as a planet.

The atomic bomb which would go on to destroy the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - marked not just the end of the Second World War but also a turning point in history as for the first time we had the ability to destroy life on Earth.

In this episode Lucy explores the subject of ‘existential risk’, from nuclear war to artificial intelligence, to discover how in the effort to liberate ourselves from the constraints of nature we have created new hazards that threaten not only society but the environment upon which we depend for survival.

The greatest risk that faces us as a planet is undoubtedly climate change, but despite the overwhelming evidence of the human impact on the climate she finds out why we have done so little to mitigate this catastrophic threat.

Presenter: Lucy Easthope
Producer: Patrick Bernard
Executive Producer: David Prest
A Whistledown Production for BBC Radio 4.

Lucy Easthope is the co-founder of the After Disaster Network in the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience at the University of Durham, Professor in Mass Fatalities and Pandemics at the University of Bath and the author of “When The Dust Settles”.


FRI 14:00 The Archers (m0027jyj)
[Repeat of broadcast at 19:00 on Thursday]


FRI 14:15 Limelight (m0027lch)
Exemplar - Series 2

Exemplar - Episode 2

When a never before heard track by iconic 90s band The Daisy Chains is discovered, a bitter argument over ownership between the lead singer’s widow and the bandleader ensues. Jess and Maya are brought in to work out who really wrote the song, with just an old school tape recording of the original track as a clue.

Exemplar: “an audio recording made by a forensic analyst to recreate the precise audio conditions of a piece of evidence in a criminal or civil case.”

The return of a modern day thriller set in the world of audio forensics. In Exemplar, Gina McKee plays Jess, a forensic analyst born and bred in the North East. Together with her colleague Maya, she undertakes a different sound challenge in every episode. When DS Serena Gray comes into their world, things become a little bit more complicated.

Created by leading sound designers, Ben and Max Ringham, and rooted in factual research. The first series of Exemplar won Best Series at the 2022 BBC Audio Drama Awards.

Jess ….. Gina McKee
Maya ….. Shvorne Marks
Seb ….. Afnan Iftikhar
Lucia ….. Tracey Wilkinson
Clare ….. Amy McAllister

Writers: Ben and Max Ringham, with Dan Rebellato
Audio forensic consultants: James Zjalić, plus Dr Katherine Earnshaw and Bryony Nuttall, forensic specialists in speech and audio at the Forensic Voice Centre
Police consultant: Alex Ashton
Sound recordist: Alisdair McGregor
Production coordinator: Annie Keates Thorpe
Sound design: Ben and Max Ringham with Lucinda Mason Brown
Original music: Ben and Max Ringham
Directors: Polly Thomas and Jade Lewis
Executive producer: Joby Waldman

A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 14:45 Why Do We Do That? (m0027lck)
Series 2

3. Why do we have grandmas?

Grandmothers are a bit of a mystery, biologically speaking. If the biological purpose of life is to survive and have children, why are they so important even once they've stopped being able to reproduce?

Of course, as we all know, grandma's are the rock of most families, and it turns out, biologically also incredibly useful. Grandmothers are a logical necessity, your mother and father also had mothers so that equals two grandmas for you.

But the evolutionary role they play in many of our lives has been less easily explained until now. Why are they so helpful? Why do they stop having children of their own? Why do we have grandmothers?!

Ella speaks to anthropologist Dr Emily Emmott, and midwife, educator and grandmother Sheena Byrom OBE

BBC Studios Audio Production
Producer Emily Bird
Additional production Olivia Jani
Series Producer Geraldine Fitzgerald
Executive Producer Alexandra Feachem


FRI 15:00 Gardeners' Question Time (m0027lcm)
Horticultural programme featuring a group of gardening experts.


FRI 15:45 Short Works (m0027lcp)
An original short work for radio.


FRI 16:00 Last Word (m0027lcr)
Weekly obituary programme telling the life stories of those who have died recently.


FRI 16:30 Sideways (m0027k08)
[Repeat of broadcast at 09:00 on Wednesday]


FRI 17:00 PM (m0027lct)
Afternoon news and current affairs programme, reporting on breaking stories and summing up the day's headlines.


FRI 18:00 Six O'Clock News (m0027lcw)
National and international news from BBC Radio 4


FRI 18:30 The News Quiz (m0027lcy)
Series 116

Episode 5

Topical panel quiz show, taking its questions from the week's news stories.


FRI 19:00 The Archers (m0027ld0)
Writer: Sarah Hehir
Director: Dave Payne
Editor: Jeremy Howe

Ben Archer…. Ben Norris
Jolene Archer….. Buffy Davis
Kenton Archer…. Richard Attlee
Tom Archer….. William Troughton
Harrison Burns….. James Cartwright
Alice Carter….. Hollie Chapman
Chris Carter….. Wilf Scolding
Chelsea Horrobin…. Madeleine Leslay
Tracy Horrobin…. Susie Riddell
Zainab Malik…. Priyasasha Kumari
Hannah Riley…. Helen Longworth
Fallon Rogers…. Joanna Van Kampen
Lynda Snell…. Carole Boyd
Robert Snell…. Michael Bertenshaw
Lawrence…. Rupert Vansittart


FRI 19:15 Screenshot (m0027ld2)
Video Shops

With physical media sales on the rise and streaming fatigue setting in, Ellen E Jones and Mark Kermode explore the world of video shops on screen.

Mark talks to director Alex Ross Perry about his documentary film Videoheaven; a film narrated by Maya Hawke that examines the rise and fall of video shop. Mark then speaks to film critic Kate Hagen about what made video shops such a special and beloved place for movie lovers.

Ellen then takes a trip to 20th Century Flicks in Bristol which claims to be the longest running video shop in the world. She speaks to owner Dave Taylor about how the shop has survived and thrived over the last 43 years.

Produced by Jane Long
A Prospect Street production for BBC Radio 4


FRI 20:00 Any Questions? (m0027ld4)
Topical discussion posing questions to a panel of political and media personalities.


FRI 20:50 A Point of View (m0027ld6)
Weekly reflections on topical issues from a range of contributors.


FRI 21:00 Free Thinking (m0027ld8)
Repetition

Matthew Sweet with art critic TJ Clark, who has written about the importance of repeated viewing for appreciating a work of art; philosopher and film historian Lucy Bolton, who's seen a re-issue of Chantel Akerman's film Jeanne Dielman, which documents the crushing routine of a Belgian housewife; philosopher and theologian Clare Carlisle, who has written on the philosopher Kierkegaard, who discussed repetition as a major feature structuring human life, and historian and educationalist Anthony Seldon.

Producer: Luke Mulhall


FRI 22:00 The World Tonight (m0027ldb)
In depth reporting, intelligent analysis and breaking news from a global perspective.


FRI 22:45 Raiders of the Lost Cask by Abir Mukherjee (m0027ldd)
Angel's Share

The conclusion of the new thriller from the author of the Wyndham and Banerjee series. Sunita's peaceful life in the Scottish Highlands is shattered when a figure from her past threatens blackmail. Her dangerous plan to raise a hundred grand has come together but everything depends on Primakov - is the billionaire in a buying mood?

Read by Sudha Bhuchar
Written by Abir Mukherjee
Produced by Eilidh McCreadie

A BBC Audio Scotland production for BBC Radio 4.

Abir Mukherjee's standalone novel HUNTED was published in 2024 and is a gripping white-knuckle ride across contemporary America. Sudha Bhuchar can be seen in 'Virdee', the Bradford-set detective series coming soon to the BBC.


FRI 23:00 Americast (m0027ldg)
Join the Americast team for insights from across the US.


FRI 23:30 Today in Parliament (m0027ldj)
News, views and features on today's stories in Parliament